ii      -r 

(^LIBRARY    ) 

UNIVERSITY  OF 
CALIFORNIA 

SAN  D»EGO       ! 


THE  RIDDLE   OF  PERSONALITY 


THE  RIDDLE  OF 
PERSONALITY 


BY 
H.  ADDINGTON   BRUCE 


NEW  YORK 
MOFFAT,  YARD    &   COMPANY 

1908 


Copyright,  1908.  by 
MOFFAT,  YARD  &  COMPANY 

NEW  YORK 

Published  March,  1908 


The  Plimpton  Press  Norwood  Mass.  U3.A. 


WILLIAM  JAMES  AND  BORIS  SIDIS 

AS  A  SLIGHT  APPRECIATION  OF  THEIR  EFFORTS 

TOWARDS  THE  CLEARER  UNDERSTANDING 

OF  HUMAN  PERSONALITY 


CONTENTS 

PAGE 

PREFACE         m 

CHAPTER  I 
EARLY  PHASES  OF  THE  PROBLEM 

CHAPTER  II 

THE  SUBLIMINAL  SELF 25 

CHAPTER  HI 

"  PIONEERS  OF  FRANCE  IN  THE  NEW  WORLD  ".....      53 

CHAPTER  IV 

AMERICAN  EXPLORERS  OF  THE  SUBCONSCIOUS 80 

CHAPTER  V 

THE  EVIDENCE  FOR  SURVIVAL 107 

CHAPTER  VI 

THE  NEMESIS  OF  SPIRITISM 136 

APPENDIX  I 
D.  D.  HOME  AND  EUBAPIA  PALADINO 163 

APPENDIX  H 

THE  CENSUS  OF  HALLUCINATIONS 177 

vii 


viii  Contents 

APPENDIX  III 
HYPNOTISM  AND  THE  DRINK  HABIT 186 

APPENDIX  IV 
HYPNOIDIZATION 191 

APPENDIX  V 
SPIRITISM  vs.  TELEPATHY       200 

APPENDIX  VI 
HINTS  FOR  FURTHER  READING 220 

INDEX  241 


PREFACE 

A  LARGE  part  of  the  present  work 
appeared  originally  in  the  pages  of 
Appleton's  Magazine,  the  editors  of 
which  shared  with  the  writer  the  belief  that 
there  was  a  lively  desire  for  information  con- 
cerning the  discoveries  made  by  those  whose 
special  endeavor  has  been  to  throw  a  scien- 
tific light  on  the  nature  and  possibilities  of 
human  personality.  In  confirmation  of  this 
belief  letters  of  inquiry  and  commendation 
wTere  received  from  widely  separated  points; 
and,  significantly  enough,  the  majority  of 
these  related  to  the  papers  dealing  more 
particularly  with  the  curative  results  attained 
by  investigators  who  would  put  their  dis- 
coveries to  practical  use  for  the  benefit  of 
humanity. 

This  was  especially  gratifying  to  the  writer, 
because  it  has  long  been  his  conviction  that 
lack  of  knowledge  is  the  only  real  obstacle 
to  general  acceptance  of  the  gifts  which 


x  Preface 

scientific  exploration  of  personality  holds  out 
to  mankind.  The  growth  of  Christian 
Science,  which  may  perhaps  be  defined  as 
unscientific  utilization  of  the  powers  latent  in 
every  human  being,  is  itself  indicative  of 
the  popular  readiness  to  throw  down  the 
bars,  as  it  were,  and  advance  boldly  into  the 
unknown  region  of  subconscious  force  and 
activity  now  being  scientifically  opened  up. 
But,  unlike  the  voluminous  literature  pertain- 
ing to  the  question  of  the  survival  of  persona- 
ality  after  bodily  death,  little  has  been  written 
to  illumine,  for  the  non-scientific  reader,  the 
question  of  the  hidden  resources  of  per- 
sonality and  the  possibility  of  employing 
them  to  heal  the  individual  and  strengthen 
the  race.  Most  of  the  works  dealing  with 
this  subject,  being  addressed  primarily  to 
the  psychologist  and  the  physician,  are 
couched  in  technical  and  difficult  phraseology, 
and  make  such  arid  reading  that,  unless  their 
importance  be  impressed  upon  the  public 
mind,  they  are  unlikely  to  meet  with  the 
wide-spread  and  attentive  consideration  which 
they  merit. 

The    following    chapters,    therefore,    have 
been  prepared  for  the  purpose  of  indicating 


Preface  xi 

first  what  has  been  accomplished  thus  far 
by  scientific  students  of  the  self,  and  of  assist- 
ing the  reader  to  prosecute  study  on  his  own 
account  with  the  aid  of  the  technical  works 
which  he  will  find  enumerated  in  the  biblio- 
graphical essay  at  the  close  of  the  book  —  an 
essay  purposely  confined  so  far  as  possible 
to  works  of  recent  publication.  To  the 
writer's  way  of  thinking  it  is  impossible  to 
overestimate  the  value,  to  mankind  in  the 
large  and  to  the  sick  and  suffering  in  particu- 
lar, of  the  discoveries  already  made  by  such 
savants  as  Liebeault,  Charcot,  Bernheim,  and 
Janet,  of  France;  and  Sidis  and  Prince,  of 
the  United  States.  Their  work  seems  to 
mark  the  opening  of  a  new  era  for  the  human 
race,  and  in  especial  to  point  the  way  for  the 
better  equipment  of  the  great  mass  of  hu- 
manity to  withstand  the  added  dangers  and 
strain  incidental  to  the  increasing  complexi- 
ties of  civilization. 

At  the  same  time,  it  has  not  been  deemed 
proper  to  devote  this  introductory  volume 
entirely  to  the  work  of  the  psychopathologists 

—  to  give  them   their  technical   designation. 
The  labors  of  another  group  of  investigators 

—  the  much  abused  "psychical  researchers" 


xii  Preface 

—  had  also  to  be  taken  into  the  reckoning, 
and  for  two  reasons.  In  the  first  place, 
while  pressing  earnestly  towards  the  goal  of 
scientific  demonstration  that  the  life  of  man 
does  not  end  with  the  grave,  they  have  in- 
cidentally broken  much  new  ground  in  the 
study  of  man.  And,  wrhat  is  most  important, 
they  provide  the  necessary  corrective  for  the 
materialistic  conclusions  towards  which  the 
investigations  of  the  psychopathologists  tend. 
The  attempt  has  consequently  been  made, 
and  for  the  first  time  so  far  as  the  writer  is 
aware,  to  correlate  the  discoveries  of  the 
psychical  researchers  and  the  psychopatholo- 
gists with  a  view  to  showing  that  instead  of 
undermining  the  long-cherished  faith  in  the 
immortality  of  man  the  results  of  their  in- 
quiries and  experiments  confirm  and  buttress 
it. 

For  assistance  in  the  preparation  of  his 
pages,  the  writer  has  numerous  acknowledg- 
ments to  make.  Besides  the  authorities  from 
whom  he  has  freely  quoted,  he  has  received 
personal  counsel  and  aid  from  Prof.  William 
James,  of  Harvard  University;  Prof.  James 
H.  Hyslop,  of  the  recently  organized  Ameri- 
can Institute  for  Scientific  Research,  which 


Preface  xiii 

has  taken  the  place  of  the  American  branch 
of  the  Society  for  Psychical  Research;  Dr. 
Boris  Sidis,  of  Brookline,  Mass.;  Dr.  Morton 
Prince,  of  Boston;  Prof.  Pierre  Janet,  of  the 
College  de  France,  and  Dr.  William  A.  White, 
superintendent  of  the  government  Hospital 
for  the  Insane,  Washington,  D.  C.  But 
most  of  all  is  he  indebted  to  his  wife,  Lau- 
retta A.  Bruce,  who  has  given  him  many 
valuable  suggestions,  and  whose  critical  read- 
ing of  the  manuscript  has  largely  contributed 
whatever  literary  merit  his  book  may  possess. 

H.  ADDINGTON  BRUCE. 

CAMBRIDGE,  MASS.,  September,  1907 


The    Riddle    of  Personality 

CHAPTER  I 

EARLY  PHASES  OF  THE  PROBLEM 

THERE  is  no  more  absorbing  and  im- 
portant subject  of  inquiry  than  the 
nature  and  destiny  of  human  per- 
sonality. From  those  early  moments  when 
the  dawn  of  intelligence  heralded  the  birth 
of  curiosity,  what,  whence,  and  whither  have 
been  the  uppermost  thoughts  in  the  mind  of 
man  whenever,  in  the  dim  twilight  of  the  stone 
age  as  in  the  noonday  glare  of  the  twentieth 
century,  he  has  cast  aside  the  preoccupations 
of  every-day  life  and  surrendered  to  self-com- 
muning. There  is  none  but  finds  himself 
confronted  with  the  riddle  of  personality  and 
in  some  fashion  seeks  to  give  it  answer.  At 
the  one  end  looms  the  mystery  of  death,  mask- 
ing the  vision  of  the  future;  at  the  other,  the 
no  less  inscrutable  mystery  of  birth,  recapitu- 
lating in  the  individual  the  history  of  the 
race.  And  in  between,  from  the  cradle  to 
the  grave,  the  riddle  of  personality  presses 
for  reply.  What  is  the  nature  of  the  self? 


2  The  Riddle  of  Personality 

Whence  its  faculties,  its  capacity  for  pain 
and  pleasure?  Whence,  indeed,  its  self- 
awareness  ?  To  such  questions  as  these,  it 
must  be  acknowledged,  primitive  man  paid 
scant  attention.  For  him  the  future,  rather 
than  the  past  or  present,  held  interest,  and 
peopling  the  universe  with  unseen  spirits  of 
good  and  of  evil,  his  chief  concern  was  to 
assure  his  future  welfare  by  propitiation 
and  sacrifice.  But  with  the  process  of  time 
man  has  come  to  realize  that  the  question  of 
the  survival  of  personality  involves  the  ques- 
tion of  the  nature  of  personality,  and  that 
whatever  may  be  the  answer  to  the  former, 
it  is  in  the  highest  degree  essential  to  his  well- 
being  in  bodily  life  that  he  arrive  at  a  correct 
solution  of  the  latter. 

It  is  not  too  much  to  say  that  the  realization 
of  this  truth  marks  the  greatest  advance  in 
the  thought  of  man  since  he  emerged  from 
his  state  of  savagery  and  ignorance.  At  first, 
to  be  sure,  the  problem  of  the  nature  of  per- 
sonality was  attacked  from  standpoints  little 
calculated  to  give  satisfactory  results.  The 
earliest  appreciation  of  the  necessity  of  solv- 
ing it  came  at  a  time  when  the  human  mind 
was  completely  dominated  by  the  religious 


Early  Phases  of  the  Problem  3 

impulse,  and  in  consequence  the  main  avenue 
of  approach  was  philosophical;  a  philosophy 
strongly  tinged  by  mysticism.  This  condi- 
tion, with  recurrent  but  futile  waves  of  skep- 
ticism, prevailed  until  a  recent  day  when, 
with  the  growth  of  the  scientific  spirit,  a  sin- 
gular volte  face  was  ultimately  effected.  The 
nature  of  man,  we  were  assured,  must  be 
sought  in  his  physical  composition.  The 
apotheosis  of  this  point  of  view  came  with 
the  discoveries  of  Darwin  and  Wallace  and 
the  formulation  of  the  evolutionary  theory. 
Forthwith  the  tree  of  materialism  extended 
its  roots,  put  forth  new  branches,  and  blos- 
somed with  unprecedented  brilliance.  Even 
to-day  its  foliage,  at  first  sight,  seems  fresh 
and  green  as  ever.  But  closer  scrutiny  re- 
veals the  fact  that  it  is  already  invaded  by 
the  yellows  and  browns  of  decay.  In  truth, 
the  evolutionary  theory  is  fated  to  bring 
about  the  passing  of  materialism  as  an  ex- 
planation of  the  nature  of  human  personality. 
Hardly  had  the  evolutionists  compelled  accept- 
ance of  their  views,  when  the  question  rose: 
Why  may  there  not  be  psychical  as  well  as 
physical  evolution  ?  Only  a  few  years  have 
elapsed  since  this  question  was  seriously  pro- 


4  The  Riddle  of  Personality 

pounded,  but  the  inquiries  which  it  set  on 
foot  have  been  productive  of  truly  remark- 
able results.  Acknowledging  their  debt  to 
Darwin  and  Wallace,  recognizing  more  clearly 
than  before  the  close  interrelation  between 
mind  and  body,  the  latest  investigators  into 
the  nature  of  personality  have  opened  up 
broader  vistas  for  mankind,  have  cleared 
the  ground  for  freer  views  of  the  destiny  of 
the  race,  and  have  pointed  out  new  means 
of  rescuing  the  individual  from  many  of  the 
ills  that  afflict  his  bodily  existence. 

It  will  be  the  purpose  of  the  following 
chapters  to  tell  the  story  of  what  these 
searchers  have  accomplished,  with  especial 
reference  to  the  bearing  of  their  discoveries 
not  only  on  the  nature  of  personality  per  se 
but  also  on  the  physical  well-being  of  man. 
And  in  the  pursuit  of  the  latter  object,  it  will 
be  necessary  to  deal  with  the  work  of  savants 
who  would  not  only  be  the  first  to  disclaim 
acceptance  of  the  views  adopted  by  certain 
of  their  colaborers,  but  would  even  be  inclined 
to  repudiate  them  as  colaborers.  The  reasons 
for  disclaimer  and  repudiation  will  become 
obvious  as  the  narrative  proceeds,  as,  I  trust, 
will  become  also  the  ties  that  in  the  last  analy- 


Early  PJiases  of  the  Problem  5 

sis  unite  the  several  groups  and  warrant 
their  inclusion  in  the  present  study.  The 
situation  is  here  referred  to  for  the  purpose 
of  avoiding  future  misunderstandings.  Men- 
tion of  it  is  in  fact  unavoidable  at  this  point, 
for  the  reason  that  our  quest  must  begin  with 
a  glance  at  sundry  still  debatable  phenomena 
which  have  proved  the  starting  point  for  the 
modern  investigators  of  the  nature  of  the  self, 
phenomena  long  neglected  by  science,  but 
now,  when  at  last  subjected  to  scientific  scru- 
tiny, found  not  devoid  of  significance  and 
value. 

Roughly  speaking,  these  phenomena  may 
be  divided  into  two  groups,  the  spiritistic 
and  the  hypnotic.  The  basic  idea  under- 
lying all  of  the  many  subdivisions  of  the 
former  is  the  ancient  belief  in  "spirits."  It 
is  not  necessary  to  follow  the  evolution  of 
this  belief  from  the  time  when  the  philosophy, 
such  as  it  was,  of  untutored  man  was  wholly 
controlled  and  colored  by  his  childlike  con- 
fidence in  the  presence  and  intervention  of 
supermundane  beings.  Our  point  of  de- 
parture is  rather  at  the  moment  when  the 
spiritistic  idea  began  to  assume  the  com- 
plexion of  an  organized  religious  system. 


6  The  Riddle  of  Personality 

This  need  take  us  back  only  to  the  second 
quarter  of  the  nineteenth  century,  to  the  days 
of  Andrew  Jackson  Davis  and  the  Fox  sisters. 
It  is  quite  true  that  long  before  their  time, 
thanks  to  the  teachings  of  Swedenborg,  and 
the  trance  phenomena  of  "mesmerized"  sub- 
jects, the  idea  that  the  spirits  of  the  dead  can 
and  do  communicate  with  the  living  had 
been  established  as  a  popular  concept.  But 
the  founder  of  modern  spiritism '  was  not 
Swedenborg  (whose  views,  as  a  matter  of 
fact,  are  at  variance  from  those  of  the  spirit- 
ists) but  Davis.  The  latter  was  born  in  1826 
in  a  rural  district  of  the  State  of  New  York. 
When  he  was  twelve  years  old  his  parents 
removed  to  Poughkeepsie,  whence  he  derived 
the  name  of  the  "Poughkeepsie  Seer,"  by 
which  he  was  known  in  after  years.  He 
seems  to  have  been  a  delicate  lad,  to  have 
been  backward  as  a  child,  and  to  have  re- 
ceived little  education.  At  the  age  of  fifteen 
he  was  apprenticed  to  a  shoemaker.  In  1843 

1  Throughout  I  purpose  using  the  term  "spiritism"  in  preference 
to  "spiritualism"  when  referring  to  the  religious  system  that  has 
been  constructed  about  the  central  idea  of  communication  with  the 
dead.  I  do  this  for  the  reason  that,  strictly  speaking,  the  term 
"spiritualism"  should  be  applied  only  to  the  philosophical  system 
opposed  to  materialism. 


Early  Phases  of  the  Problem  7 

a  series  of  lectures  on  "animal  magnetism" 
were  delivered  in  Poughkeepsie,  and  an  en- 
thusiastic tailor  undertook  to  mesmerize  young 
Davis.  So  well  did  he  succeed  that  the  two 
formed  a  partnership,  Davis  serving  as  a 
professional  medical  clairvoyant:  that  is  to 
say,  while  in  an  entranced  condition  pre- 
scribing for  diseases.  In  1844,  according  to 
his  own  account,  he  was,  while  entranced, 
visited  by  the  spirits  of  Galen  and  Sweden- 
borg,  who  assured  him  that  the  world  was 
about  to  receive  through  him  messages  of 
the  highest  moment.  Thereafter  he  began 
to  deliver  a  course  of  clairvovant  lectures, 

V 

which  were  ultimately  published  in  book 
form  under  the  title  of  "'The  Principles  of 
Nature,  Her  Divine  Revelations,  and  A  Voice 
to  Mankind."  This,  regarded  from  any  point 
of  view,  was  a  remarkable  production.  It 
consisted  of  some  eight  hundred  closely 
printed  pages  containing  an  elaborate  dis- 
quisition on  the  philosophy  of  the  universe. 
To  many  of  his  contemporaries,  and  to  not  a 
few  of  the  present  generation,  it  seemed  in- 
credible that  a  work  of  this  kind  could  have 
been  written  by  the  unaided  intellect  of  a 
half-educated  shoemaker,  and  consequently 


8  The  Riddle  of  Personality 

wide  credence  was  found  for  the  claim  that 
it  was  of  "inspirational"  origin.  Here,  it 
was  argued,  was  a  man  who  undoubtedly 
held  converse  with  the  spirits  of  the  illustrious 
dead,  and  by  them  was  instructed  in  the 
secrets  of  the  universe. 

The  excitement  created  by  the  appearance 
of  "The  Principles  of  Nature"  had  not  sub- 
sided when  fresh  fuel  was  found  for  the  spir- 
itistic fire.  On  the  evening  of  the  31st  of 
March,  1848,  a  Mrs.  Fox,  the  wife  of  a  farmer 
living  in  the  small  village  of  Hydesville,  N.  Y., 
astounded  her  neighbors  by  the  information 
that  her  two  young  daughters  had  estab- 
lished, communication  with  the  dead.  In 
their  case  the  claim  was  made  that  the  mes- 
sages were  received  not  "  inspirationally "  but 
by  means  of  loud  knockings,  the  "spirits" 
giving  evidence  of  intelligence  by  repeatedly 
making  the  exact  number  of  raps  requested 
by  one  of  the  daughters.  The  Fox  home- 
stead instantly  became  the  Mecca  of  a  dozen 
or  more  inquisitive  villagers,  who  were  re- 
warded by  receiving  from  the  "spirits" 
accurate  information  respecting  the  number, 
ages,  and  characteristics  of  families  resident 
in  the  vicinity.  A  few  evenings  later  it  was 


declared,  through  the  same  uncanny  rap- 
pings,  that  a  murder  had  been  committed  in 
the  Fox  house  some  years  before,  and  that 
the  body  of  the  victim  had  been  buried  in  the 
cellar.  Investigation  was  made,  and  at  a 
depth  of  several  feet  below  the  cellar  floor 
teeth,  bones,  and  hair  supposed  to  be  human 
were  found. 

The  fame  of  Margaretta  and  Catherine 
Fox  now  became  more  than  local,  and  was 
the  more  increased  when  Margaretta  went 
to  Rochester  to  visit  a  married  sister,  a  Mrs. 
Fish,  and  Catherine  journeyed  to  Auburn  to 
stay  with  friends.  Forthwith  the  raps  fol- 
lowed them,  and  not  only  this  but  manifested 
a  willingness  to  be  produced  through  the 
instrumentality  of  other  than  the  Fox  sisters. 
Mrs.  Fish  herself  became  a  medium  for  the 
mysterious  sounds,  as  did  many  other  per- 
sons in  Rochester,  and  the  same  result  fol- 
lowed Catherine  Fox's  sojourn  in  Auburn. 
Modern  spiritism  had  been  fairly  launched. 
As  one  of  the  sanest  writers  on  the  subject 
says: 

"Sometimes  the  contagion  was  conveyed 
by  a  casual  visit.  Thus  Miss  Harriet  Bebee, 
a  young  lady  of  sixteen,  had  an  interview  of 


10  The  Riddle  of  Personality 

a  few  hours  with  Mrs.  Tamlin,  a  medium  of 
Auburn,  and  on  her  return  to  her  own  home, 
twenty  miles  distant,  the  raps  forthwith  broke 
out  in  her  presence.  In  the  course  of  the 
next  two  or  three  years,  indeed,  the  rappings 
had  spread*  throughout  the  greater  part  of 
the  Eastern  States.  Thus  a  writer  in  the 
New  Haven  Journal  in  October,  1850,  refers 
to  knockings  and  other  phenomena  in  seven 
different  families  in  Bridgeport,  forty  families 
in  Rochester,  in  Auburn,  in  Syracuse,  'some 
two  hundred'  in  Ohio,  in  New  Jersey,  and 
places  more  distant,  as  well  as  in  Hartford, 
Springfield,  Charlestown,  and  elsewhere.  A 
year  later  a  correspondent  of  the  Spiritual 
World  estimated  that  there  were  a  hundred 
mediums  in  New  York  City,  and  fifty  or  sixty 
*  private  circles'  were  reported  in  Philadel- 
phia."1 

In  vain  clergymen  fulminated,  and  scien- 
tists demonstrated  that  the  rappings  could  be 
produced  by  rapid  movements  of  the  toe-  or 
knee-  joints.  Spiritism  spread  with  an  alac- 
rity only  paralleled  in  later  days  by  the  growth 
of  Christian  Science.  Sometimes  the  zeal 
of  the  converts  led  to  the  most  bizarre  happen- 

1  "Modem  Spiritualism,"  by  Frank  Podmore,  Vol.  I,  p.  182. 


Early  Pfiases  of  the  Problem  11 

ings.  Take,  for  instance,  the  case  of  Jonathan 
Koons,  a  farmer  who  lived  in  a  remote  and 
mountainous  district  in  Ohio.  In  1852  he 
chanced  to  attend  a  spiritistic  seance,  and  it 
was  revealed  to  him  that  he  and  his  eight 
children  were  superabundantly  gifted  with 
mediumistic  ability.  On  returning  home 
Koons  proceeded,  under  the  direction  of  spirit 
guides,  to  build  a  seance  house,  a  log  struc- 
ture intended  for  spiritistic  purposes  exclu- 
sively. This  he  equipped  with  a  'spirit  table' 
and  a  great  variety  of  musical  instruments. 
Benches  were  provided  for  the  sitters.  On 
seance  evenings  the  log  cabin  became  a  ver- 
itable concert  hall,  the  music  being  provided 
by  a  spirit  orchestra.  There  were  other 
startling  physical  manifestations.  We  read 
of  tambourines  flying  through  the  air  as 
though  provided  with  wrings,  and  of  the 
materialization  of  spirit  hands.  Oddly 
enough,  all  these  performances  were  attrib- 
uted to  the  spirits  of  a  large  band  of  pre- 
Adamite  men  and  women. 

At  first  physical  phenomena  dominated  the 
spiritistic  movement,  increasing  in  variety 
and  strangeness  as  the  novelty  of  the  earlier 
manifestations  wore  away.  So  long  ago  as 


12  The  Riddle  of  Personality 

1849  the  raps  were  supplemented  by  the  mov- 
ing about  of  tables  and  chairs.  A  little  later 
the  phenomenon  of  "apports"  was  witnessed 
in  the  production,  apparently  from  the  air, 
of  ribbons,  flowers,  and  so  forth.  Nature's 
laws  were  soon  afterwards  set  further  at 
naught  by  the  feats  of  a  young  Scotch  me- 
dium, Daniel  Dunglas  Home,  who,  both  in 
the  Old  World  and  the  New,  produced  phe- 
nomena which  must  have  caused  less  gifted 
mediums  to  turn  green  with  envy.  His 
crowning  triumphs  were  "levitation,"  in  which 
he  seemed  to  be  lifted  bodily  and  transported 
about  the  seance  room  without  visible  sup- 
port, and  "elongation,"  in  which  the  spirits 
caused  him  to  grow  temporarily  several  inches 
beyond  his  normal  height.  The  assurance 
is  gravely  given  that  on  at  least  one  occasion 
Home  actually  floated  out  of  a  window  of  one 
room  and  returned  by  floating  in  through  the 
window  of  another.1  Slate  writing  and  table 
tipping  were  other  less  sensational  but  ex- 
tremely popular  diversions  of  the  spirits. 
But  in  point  of  bearing  upon  the  inquiry  into 
the  nature  of  human  personality,  none  of 
these  physical  phenomena  have  the  signifi- 

1  See  Appendix  I. 


Early  Phases  of  the  Problem  13 

cance  of  the  later  "psychical"  phenomena, 
the  alleged  interworld  communications  through 
trance  mediums  of  the  type  of  which  Mrs. 
Leonora  E.  Piper,  of  Boston,  is  the  most 
celebrated  representative  to-day.  Andrew 
Jackson  Davis,  of  course,  belonged  to  this 
class,  but  inspirational,  or  "automatic,"  speak- 
ing and  writing  did  not  become  a  distinctive 
feature  of  the  spiritistic  movement  until  the 
physical  phase  had  had  its  innings,  so  to  speak. 
In  addition  to  inspirational  speaking  and 
writing,  the  more  salient  psychical  phenomena 
include  clairvoyance,  the  faculty  of  perceiv- 
ing, as  if  visually,  scenes  transpiring  at  a  dis- 
tance; clairaudience,  the  sensation  of  hearing 
a  distant  voice,  and  crystal-gazing,  the  act 
of  looking  into  a  crystal,  or  other  body  with 
a  reflecting  surface,  and  seeing  therein  hal- 
lucinatory pictures.  It  is  important  to  ob- 
serve that  instances  of  all  these  phenomena 
were  reported  centuries  before  the  appearance 
of  spiritism  as  a  religion.  For  instance, 
many  of  the  deliverances  of  the  ancient  Greek 
oracles  were  supposed  to  be  derived  through 
dreams  and  clairvoyance  of  some  kind.  The 
practice  of  crystal-gazing,  Professor  Hyslop 
has  found,  was  known  in  some  form  three 


14  The  Riddle  of  Personality 

thousand  years  ago,  reaching  its  highest 
development  in  the  sixteenth  and  seventeenth 
centuries,  when  its  exponents  included  "the 
learned  physicians  and  mathematicians  of 
the  courts  of  Elizabeth,  the  Italian  princes,  the 
Regent  Catherine  de  Medici,  and  the  Em- 
perors Maximilian  and  Rudolph."1  But  in 
those  bygone,  superstitious  times  psychical 
phenomena  of  a  seemingly  supernormal  type 
were  regarded  as  being,  in  a  sense,  part  of  the 
natural  order  of  things.  There  was  little  or 
no  inclination  to  hold  them  suspect,  although 
there  was  every  inclination  to  ill  use  the 
hapless  "mediums,"  particularly  if  they 
acquired  the  reputation  of  being  sorcerers. 
With  the  growth  of  science  came  a  new  stand- 
point, a  cursory  dismissal  of  the  phenomena 
as  either  fraudulent  or  unworthy  of  investiga- 
tion. It  was  this  tendency,  which  still  per- 
sists but  with  diminished  vigor,  that  was 
responsible  for  the  long  delay  in  subjecting  the 
claims  of  organized  spiritism  to  really  search- 
ing scrutiny;  it  was  this  tendency  that  caused 
a  deaf  ear  to  be  turned  to  those  who  claimed 
to  have  experienced  the  kindred  phenomenon 

1  For  an  informing  survey  of  crystal-gazing,  see  Professor  Hyslop's 
"Enigmas  of  Psychical  Research,"  pp.  40-91. 


Early  Phases  of  the  Problem  15 

of  seeing  apparitions  of  the  dead  or  dying;  it 
was  this  tendency,  again,  that  prevented 
earlier  recognition  of  the  truths  underlying 
the  marvels  of  hypnotism. 

With  this  we  approach  our  second  great 
group  of  phenomena  rich  in  significance  to 
the  modern  student  of  personality.  And, 
once  more,  although  the  annals  of  hypnotism 
extend  back  to  the  days  when  Egypt  and 
Babylon  were  in  their  prime,  our  introductory 
survey  may  begin  at  a  recent  date,  may  begin 
with  the  closing  years  of  the  eighteenth  cen- 
tury when  Franz  Anton  Mesmer  introduced 
many  of  its  striking  phenomena  to  the  Euro- 
pean world.  Charlatan  though  he  was,  man- 
kind owes  a  greater  debt  to  him  than  has 
generally  been  acknowledged.  As  the  present 
writer  has  elsewhere  said:  "When  Mesmer 
published  in  1773  his  account  of  the  mar- 
velous cures  effected  by  what  he  was  pleased 
to  term  animal  magnetism,  he  sowed  seed 
which  was  to  render  inevitable  the  diligent 
husbandry  of  to-day."1  Grant  that  hypno- 
tism had  still  to  be  clarified  by  the  researches 
of  an  Esdaile,  an  Elliotson,  a  Braid,  a  Char- 

'"  Mysteries  of  the  Human  Mind."  Public  Opinion,  Vol. 
XXXIX,  p.  355. 


16  The  Riddle  of  Personality 

cot,  a  Liebeault,  a  Gurney,  before  it  became 
what  it  is  to-day  —  a  wonderful  curative 
instrument  and  aid  to  psychological  experi- 
mentation ;  grant  all  this,  and  Mesmer  remains 
the  first  of  a  line  of  psychotherapeutists  and 
psychopathologists  whose  fame,  if  belated,  is 
steadily  growing.  That  he  should  have  been 
rebuffed  by  the  orthodox  practitioners  of  his 
day  is  not  surprising.  When,  in  1778,  he 
came  to  Paris,  he  came  with  a  well  developed 
sense  of  the  value  of  advertising.  The  cam- 
paign he  inaugurated  was  of  a  character  to 
disgust  the  conservative  and  thoughtful,  but 
to  take  a  sensation-loving  populace  by  storm. 
Most  extravagant  tales  of  cures  he  had  accom- 
plished in  Berlin,  Vienna,  and  elsewhere  were 
noised  abroad.  Through  a  convert  he  chal- 
lenged the  physicians  of  Paris  to  enter  into  a 
contest  with  him,  they  to  treat  twelve  patients 
by  the  orthodox  methods,  he  to  treat  twelve 
by  his.  Of  course  this  challenge  was  re- 
jected, and  equally,  of  course,  its  rejection 
was  interpreted  by  the  thoughtless  as  an 
acknowledgment  of  the  superiority  of  Mes- 
mer's  treatment.  His  rooms  were  thronged; 
his  purse  waxed  constantly  heavier. 

The   treatment   he   gave   was   such    as   to 


Early  Phases  of  the  Problem  17 

appeal  vividly  to  the  imagination  of  the 
patient;  in  a  word,  to  increase  his  suggesti- 
bility. Suggestion,  indeed,  was  its  root  ele- 
ment, although  Mesmer  failed  or  pretended 
to  fail  to  recognize  this,  and  taught  that  its 
efficacy  depended  upon  the  effluence  of  a 
mysterious  fluid.  In  a  room  dimly  lighted 
and  hung  with  mirrors,  the  patients  were 
seated  about  a  circular  vat  of  considerable 
size,  covered  with  a  lid  and  containing  various 
chemicals.  A  long  cord  connected  the  patients 
with  one  another,  while  in  the  lid  of  the  tub 
were  several  holes,  through  each  of  which 
passed  an  iron  rod  bent  in  such  a  way  that 
its  point  could  be  applied  to  any  part  of  a 
patient's  body.  The  patients  were  requested 
not  to  speak,  the  only  sound  in  the  room  being 
strains  of  soft  music.  When  expectancy  was 
at  its  flood,  Mesmer  w^ould  enter,  clad  in  the 
robe  of  a  magician  and  carrying  an  iron 
wand.  At  one  patient  he  would  gaze  in- 
tently, another  he  would  stroke  gently  with 
his  wand.  Soon  some  would  burst  into 
laughter,  others  into  tears,  while  still  others 
would  fall  into  convulsions,  finally  passing 
into  a  lethargic  state,  out  of  which,  it  is 
claimed,  they  emerged  cured  or  on  the  high- 


18  The  Riddle  of  Personality 

road  to  a  cure.  Occasionally  the  treatment 
was  given  outdoors,  a  tree  being  "magnet- 
ized" and  the  patient  collapsing  in  a  swoon 
so  soon  as  he  approached  it. 

In  such  wise  were  Europeans  first  made 
acquainted  with  the  phenomenon  of  the 
"induced  trance."  It  was  speedily  discovered 
that  the  magnetized  patients,  although  to  all 
appearance  in  a  completely  unconscious  con- 
dition, could  hear  and  reply  to  the  magnetizer, 
and  could  even  diagnose  their  own  maladies 
with  a  skill  sometimes  exceeding  that  of  the 
physician,  and  prescribe  remedies  with  con- 
fidence and  excellent  results.  It  was  also 
learned  that  upon  recovering  their  normal 
sensibility  they  were  oblivious  to  all  that  had 
transpired  during  the  period  of  trance. 
Further,  if  the  contemporary  records  are  to 
be  accepted,  they  sometimes  displayed  clair- 
voyant and  clairaudient  ability.  What  might 
be  the  cause  of  such  manifestations  was  a 
subject  of  the  most  acrimonious  dispute. 
Those  who  had  fallen  under  the  influence  of 
Swedenborg's  teachings  maintained  that  here 
was  direct  evidence  of  spirit  manifestation.1 

1  Thus,  in  support  of  this  view,  a  member  of  a  Swedish  society 
founded  in  Stockholm  for  the  purpose  of  propagating  Swedenborg's 


Early  Phases  of  the  Problem  19 

The  magnetizers,  however,  clung  obstinately 
to  the  fluidic  idea,  stating  the  case  thus:  In 
obeying  the  will  of  the  operator  the  patient 
simply  acted  as  an  "animated  magnet," 
and  the  magnetic  fluid  being  universal,  it 
necessarily  followed  that  the  patient  could 
apprehend  much  inaccessible  to  his  or  her 
knowledge  when  unmagnetized.  But  long  be- 
fore this  question  became  acute  the  excitement 
created  by  Mesrner  had  caused  the  Govern- 
ment to  take  official  cognizance  of  his  exploits. 
A  commission  of  investigation  was  appointed, 
among  its  members  being  none  other  than 
Benjamin  Franklin,  then  almost  an  octogena- 
rian but  interested  as  ever  in  scientific  re- 
search. For  some  reason  the  commissioners 
did  not  inquire  into  the  curative  merits  of  the 
new  treatment,  confining  their  labors  to  the 
problem  of  the  magnetic  fluid.  Naturally, 

doctrines,  published  a  number  of  extracts  from  journals  of  trance 
experiments.  These  indicated  that,  in  the  presence  of  several 
Swedish  noblemen,  the  wife  of  a  gardener,  while  in  the  magnetic 
trance,  was  "controlled"  by  two  spirits,  one  of  whom  was  declared 
to  have  been  her  own  infant  daughter.  Both,  according  to  the 
extracts,  in  reply  to  questions  put  by  the  bystanders,  gave  an  account 
of  their  lives  while  on  earth,  and,  in  true  Swedenborgian  fashion, 
described  the  state  of  intermediate  or  probationary  existence  through 
which  the  spirits  of  the  dead  had  to  pass  after  leaving  the  body. 
See  also  Podmore's  "Modern  Spiritualism,"  Vol.  I,  pp.  76  and  77. 


20  The  Riddle  of  Personality 

they  had  little  difficulty  in  demonstrating  that 
it  was  impossible  to  procure  evidential  proof 
of  the  fluid,  and  in  their  report  affirmed  that 
"the  effects  actually  produced  were  produced 
purely  by  the  imagination." 

The  commissioners  had  stated  the  truth, 
but  years  were  to  pass  before  it  was  refined 
from  the  dross  of  fluidistic  and  spiritistic 
philosophy.  The  history  of  hypnotism  dur- 
ing the  period  intervening  between  Mesmer 
and  Braid  makes  dreary  reading,  being  il- 
lumined by  only  occasional  flashes  rendered 
the  brighter  by  the  dark  background  of  mys- 
ticism and  charlatanism  against  which  they 
shone.  In  this  period  three  names  stand  pre- 
eminent, Bertrand,  Esdaile,  and  Elliotson. 
Bertrand  was  a  young  French  physician  who, 
in  1823,  published  a  "Traite  du  Somnam- 
bulism" in  which,  and  in  another  work  issued 
three  years  later,  he  reviewed  the  achieve- 
ments and  theories  of  the  magnetists,  and 
expressed  the  view  that  suggestion  pure  and 
simple  explained  all  the  phenomena,  the 
patient  being  preternormally  sensitive  to  the 
least  suggestion  from  the  operator.  Death, 
however,  removed  Bertrand  before  he  had 
the  time  to  elaborate  his  doctrine  of  sugges- 


Early  Phases  of  the  Problem  21 

tion  and  persuade  the  scientific  world  of  its 
validity.  Esdaile  was  less  of  a  theorizer,  but 
by  his  remarkable  operations  upon  hypno- 
tized Hindoos  in  the  Presidency  Hospital  at 
Calcutta,  of  which  he  was  long  surgeon- 
general,  he  did  much  to  demonstrate  the  use- 
fulness of  hypnotism  as  an  aid  to  surgery. 
Incidentally,  he  also  demonstrated  the  pos- 
sibility of  "community  of  sensation"  between 
the  operator  and  his  subject.  This  he  did 
through  a  young  Hindoo  who  had  previously 
been  operated  on  painlessly  while  in  the  hyp- 
notic trance.  In  turn  Dr.  Esdaile  took  in 
his  mouth  salt,  a  slice  of  lime,  a  piece  of 
gentian,  and  some  brandy,  and  the  Hindoo, 
who  was  reported  to  have  been  mesmerized 
until  he  could  not  open  his  eyes,  in  every  case 
identified  the  taste.  This,  it  may  be  noted, 
is  one  of  the  earliest  recorded  instances  of  a 
telepathic  experiment.  To  Elliotson  belongs 
the  distinction  of  having  made  mesmerism 
popular  in  England  as  a  curative  instrument. 
But  he  was  a  man  "born  out  of  due  time," 
hasty  and  reckless,  and  did  not  confine  himself 
to  using  the  mesmeric  sleep  as  a  therapeutic 
agent  or  auxiliary,  claiming  to  demonstrate 
many  other  phenomena  of  a  dubious  kind. 


22  The  Riddle  of  Personaltiy 

Thus,  he  asserted  that  the  mesmeric  influ- 
ence was  greatly  heightened  or  lessened  by 
the  use  of  different  metals  and  other  sub- 
stances. According  to  him,  gold,  nickel,  silver, 
platinum,  and  water  were  excellent  conduc- 
tors, particularly  gold  and  nickel,  although 
the  "effluence"  from  the  latter  was  of  a  vio- 
lent and  dangerous  nature;  copper,  zinc,  tin, 
and  pewter,  unless  wet,  were  non-conductors. 
As  a  natural  consequence  there  resulted  from 
his  admixture  of  sense  and  nonsense,  a  general 
discrediting  alike  of  his  views  and  his  prac- 
tices, and  a  postponement  of  the  acceptance 
of  any  of  the  mesmeric  phenomena  until  the 
situation  was  clarified  by  the  genius  of  Braid. 
Braid,  who  was  a  Manchester  physician 
of  standing,  may  justly  be  described  as  the 
first  really  scientific  student  of  mesmerism. 
It  was  he  who  gave  it  the  name  of  hypnotism, 
and  it  was  he,  too,  who  discovered  that  the 
trance  condition  could  be  induced  without 
the  intervention  of  any  operator,  by  the  mere 
fixation  of  the  subject's  eyes  on  a  bright  ob- 
ject. The  results  of  his  independent  obser- 
vations and  experiments  were  made  public 
in  a  book  in  which  he  corroborated  the  con- 
clusions of  Bertrand  respecting  the  source  of 


Early  Phases  oj  the  Problem  23 

the  phenomena,  averring  that  they  were  not 
due  to  any  power  passing  from  one  individ- 
ual to  another,  through  disks,  "passes,"  or 
other  mechanical  agency,  but  to  the  action 
of  suggestion.  In  support  of  this  view  he 
described  a  number  of  experiments  made 
not  on  professional  but  private  subjects, 
some  wide  awake,  some  hypnotized,  in  which 
all  the  characteristic  phenomena  described 
by  the  mesmerists  were  obtained  without  the 
use  of  any  magnet.  Elliotson  and  the  other 
English  mesmerists  hastened  to  deride  Braid's 
"coarse  methods,"  and  although  the  latter 
lived  until  1860,  he  did  not  live  to  witness  the 
general  recognition  that  his  theory  of  sug- 
gestion has  obtained  through  the  researches 
of  Gurney,  Liebeault,  Charcot,  and  their  dis- 
ciples, whose  work  we  shall  need  to  examine 
in  some  detail. 

Here,  then,  in  brief  outline  are  the  phe- 
nomena which,  long  neglected  by  men  of 
scientific  training  and  attainment,  have  latterly 
been  found  to  constitute  a  fruitful  field  for 
cultivation.  The  harvest  began  when  a  little 
coterie  of  Cambridge  men,  impressed  with 
the  irrationality  of  attempting  to  solve  psychi- 
cal problems  by  physical  processes  alone, 


24  The  Riddle  of  Personality 

with  the  marvelous  growth  of  spiritistic  ideas, 
and  with  the  fact  that  the  phenomena  of  spirit- 
ism had  received  no  adequate  investigation, 
resolved  that  they  would  do  all  that  in  their 
power  lay  to  promote  a  sentiment  of  scientific 
inquiry  into  whatever  was  deemed  to  transcend 
the  bounds  of  normal  experience. 


CHAPTER  II 

THE  SUBLIMINAL  SELF 

THE  movement  to  institute  a  far- 
reaching,  systematic,  and  scientific 
inquiry  into  the  nature  and  destiny 
of  human  personality  originated,  as  has  just 
been  said,  in  England  at  the  University  of 
Cambridge.  It  owed  its  inception  chiefly  to 
the  efforts  of  two  friends,  Henry  Sidgwick 
and  Frederic  W.  H.  Myers,  both  of  whom 
were  cut  down  by  the  relentless  hand  of  death 
when  at  the  zenith  of  their  powers.  Pro- 
fessor Sidgwick  was  a  philosopher  of  the  best 
type.  His  was  a  philosophy  not  of  the  cloister 
but  of  the  world.  Catholic  in  his  interests  and 
sanguine  and  enthusiastic  by  temperament, 
he  was  saved  from  rash  judgments  by  his 
acutely  analytical  frame  of  mind.  So  pene- 
trating indeed  was  his  insight  that  the  slightest 
distinction  or  qualification  seldom  escaped 
him,  and  in  his  generation  he  was,  perhaps, 
without  a  peer  in  the  nice  balancing  of  facts. 

25 


26  The  Riddle  of  Personality 

Alike  in  philosophy,  in  psychology,  in  political 
economy,  and  in  literary  criticism  he  oc- 
cupied a  notable  place.  Myers  was  poet 
rather  than  philosopher.  Artist  and  idealist, 
he  radiated  an  unfailing  sympathy  for  the 
aspirations  and  sufferings  of  mankind,  and  if, 
as  many  think,  he  passed  to  unwarranted 
extremes  in  the  conclusions  he  ultimately 
voiced,  to  him  not  the  less  belongs  the  credit 
of  having  thrown  a  flood  of  helpful  light  on 
the  workings  of  the  human  mind.  "Myers," 
Prof.  William  James  has  well  said,  "endowed 
psychology  with  a  new  problem  —  the  ex- 
ploration of  the  subliminal  region  being  des- 
tined to  figure  thereafter  in  that  branch  of 
learning  as  Myers's  problem."  Of  this,  more 
again. 

At  first,  as  may  be  imagined,  the  two  friends 
and  those  who  with  misgivings  embarked 
with  them  on  what  must  have  seemed  a  hope- 
less voyage,  were  somewhat  at  a  loss  whither 
to  point  prow.  "  Our  methods,"  Myers  wrote, 
in  recalling  that  period  of  young  endeavor, 
"our  canons,  were  all  to  make.  In  those 
early  days  we  were  more  devoid  of  precedents, 
of  guidance,  even  of  criticism  that  went  be- 
yond mere  expressions  of  contempt,  than  is 


The  Subliminal  Self  27 

now  readily  conceived."1  This  was  in  the 
seventies.  Before  the  decade  was  at  an  end, 
it  was  possible  for  him  to  recall:  "Seeking 
evidence  as  best  we  could  —  collecting  round 
us  a  small  group  of  persons  willing  to  help  in 
that  quest  for  residual  phenomena  in  the  na- 
ture and  experience  of  man  —  we  were  at  last 
fortunate  enough  to  discover  a  convergence 
of  experimental  and  of  spontaneous  evidence 
upon  one  definite  and  important  point.  We 
were  led  to  believe  that  there  was  truth  in  a 
thesis  which,  at  least  since  Swedenborg  and 
the  early  mesmerists,  had  been  repeatedly 
but  cursorily  and  ineffectually  presented  to 
mankind  —  the  thesis  that  a  communication 
can  take  place  from  mind  to  mind  by  some 
agency  not  that  of  the  recognized  organs  of 
sense.  We  found  that  this  agency,  discerni- 
ble even  on  trivial  occasions  by  suitable  ex- 
periment, seemed  to  connect  itself  with  an 
agency  more  intense,  or  at  any  rate  more 
recognizable,  which  operated  at  moments  of 
crisis  or  at  the  hour  of  death."2 

In  this  way  was  evidence  in  support  of  the 
theory  of  telepathy  first  experimentally  and 

1  Human  Personality  and  its  Survival  of  Bodily  Death."    By 
F.  W.  H.  Myers.    Vol.  I,  p.  7.  »  Ibid.,  Vol.  I,  p.  8. 


28  The  Riddle  of  Personality 

cumulatively  secured.  Further  proof  was  not 
long  in  forthcoming  after  the  little  group  of 
investigators  had  expanded  into  the  Society 
for  Psychical  Research,  which  was  founded 
in  1882  with  Professor  Sidgwick  as  its  first 
president  and  until  the  day  of  his  death  per- 
haps its  most  influential  member,  exercising 
at  once  a  stimulating  and  restraining  influence 
on  its  activities  and  conclusions.  The  leading 
spirit  in  organizing  the  society  was,  however, 
neither  Professor  Sidgwick  nor  Mr.  Myers, 
but  Prof.  W.  F.  Barrett,  of  Dublin,  who  in 
1876  had  read  a  paper  before  the  British 
Association  expressing  his  belief  in  telepathy 
and  urging  the  formation  of  a  committee  to 
undertake  experiments  in  thought-transfer- 
ence. No  action  was  taken  on  his  sugges- 
tion, but  the  formation  of  the  Society  for 
Psychical  Research  was  the  outcome  of  re- 
newed agitation  by  him  in  1881.  Its  object 
was  to  investigate  not  only  the  possibility  of 
the  transmission  of  thought  from  mind  to 
mind  without  the  intervention  of  known 
means  of  communication,  "but  all  that  large 
group  of  phenomena  outside  the  boundaries 
of  orthodox  science."  Thus  its  scope  of  in- 
quiry embraced  on  the  one  hand,  apparitions, 


The  Subliminal  Self  29 

hauntings,  clairvoyance,  clairaudience,  rap- 
pings,  and  like  problems  of  mediumship ;  and 
on  the  other,  the  phenomena  of  hypnotism. 
It  was  determined  that,  as  scientific  ends 
were  sought,  strictly  scientific  methods  must 
be  followed,  a  determination  that  had  the 
fortunate  result  of  soon  severing  from  the 
society  sundry  confessed  spiritists  who  had 
hastened  to  identify  themselves  with  it.  From 
the  outset  and  up  to  the  present,  moreover,  it 
has  included  in  its  membership  men  promi- 
nent in  public  and  professional  life  (its  list 
of  presidents  comprising,  among  others,  the 
names  of  Professor  Sidgwick,  Arthur  Balfour, 
Professor  James,  Sir  William  Crookes,  Sir 
Oliver  Lodge,  and  Professor  Richet),  and 
while  it  has  latterly  concerned  itself  princi- 
pally with  the  ever-baffling  question  of  the 
survival  of  personality  after  the  death  of  the 
body,  and  in  the  opinion  of  some  observers 
seems  to  have  developed  into  an  organization 
for  the  propagation  of  spiritism,  it  assuredly 
has  rendered  yeoman's  service  both  in  the 
direction  of  protecting  the  public  against 
fraudulent  mediums  and  by  way  of  making 
clearer  the  constitution  and  functioning  of 
the  mind  of  normal  as  well  as  abnormal  man. 


30  The  Riddle  of  Personality 

To  resume.  With  the  organization  of  the 
society,  telepathic  experiments  were  attempted 
on  an  extensive  scale,  and  in  addition  to  this 
the  task  of  collecting  evidence  for  spontane- 
ous telepathy  was  vigorously  prosecuted.  In 
both  directions  no  one,  during  the  early  years 
of  the  society,  was  more  energetic  and  success- 
ful than  one  of  its  youngest  members,  Edmund 
Gurney.  Gurney  was  just  thirty-five  when, 
in  1882,  he  undertook  the  work  of  psychical 
research,  and  before  his  death,  which  occurred 
only  six  years  later,  he  had  accomplished 
much,  particularly  in  the  simplification  of  the 
facts  of  hypnotism,  the  psychological  side  of 
which  he  was  the  first  Englishman  to  study 
with  scientific  discernment.  From  the  begin- 
ning of  the  society's  labors,  hypnotism,  as 
utilized  by  Gurney,  Myers,  Barrett,  and  Pro- 
fessor and  Mrs.  Sidgwick,  played  a  prominent 
part  in  experimental  telepathy,  it  being  found 
that  the  chances  for  success  were  greatly 
increased  when  the  "percipient"  (the  one 
who  was  to  receive  the  mental  communication, 
the  sender  being  technically  known  as  the 
"agent")  was  in  the  hypnotic  state.  For  the 
details  of  the  successive  experiments  I  must 
refer  the  reader  to  the  society's  official  records 


The  Subliminal  Self  31 

as  published  in  its  "Proceedings,"  and  espe- 
cially to  the  first  ten  volumes  of  the  "Pro- 
ceedings." For  our  present  purpose  it  is 
sufficient  to  observe  that  the  society's  Literary 
Committee,  then  consisting  of  W.  F.  Barrett, 
Charles  C.  Massey,  Rev.  W.  Stainton  Moses, 
Frank  Podmore,  Edmund  Gurney,  and  F.  W. 
H.  Myers,  felt  justified  in  affirming,  so  early 
as  1884;  "Our  society  claims  to  have  proved 
the  reality  of  thought-transference  —  of  the 
transmission  of  thoughts,  feelings,  and  images 
from  one  mind  to  another  by  no  recognized 
channel  of  sense."1  And,  a  little  later  in  the 
same  year,  as  the  result  of  a  prolonged  inquiry 
into  the  rationale  of  apparitions,  we  find  the 
same  committee  proffering  a  telepathic  ex- 
planation in  these  words: 

"Our  aim  is  to  trace  the  connection  between 
the  most  trivial  phenomena  of  thought-trans- 
ference, or  confused  inklings  of  disaster,  and 
the  full-blown  'apparition'  of  popular  belief. 
And,  once  on  the  track,  we  find  group  after 
group  of  transitional  experiences  illustrating 
the  degrees  by  which  a  stimulus,  falling  or 
fallen  from  afar  upon  some  obscure  subcon- 

1  "Proceedings  of  the  Society  for  Psychical  Research,"  Vol.  II, 
p.  44. 


32  The  Riddle  of  Personality 

scious  region  of  the  percipient's  mind,  may 
seem  to  disengage  itself  from  his  subjectivity 
and  emerge  into  the  waking  world."1 

At  this  point  it  is  not  necessary  to  discuss 
the  question  of  the  validity  of  the  application 
of  the  telepathic  theory  as  affording  a  natural- 
istic explanation  of  apparitions.  Of  imme- 
diate importance  in  the  above  quotation  is  the 
reference  to  subconscious  regions  of  the  mind. 
Already  it  had  dawned  upon  the  investigators 
that  varied  as  were  the  phenomena  of  hypno- 
tism, trance  mediumship,  and  apparitions, 
they  had  this  in  common  that  they  seemed 
to  hint  at  the  existence  of  mental  faculties  pre- 
viously unsuspected.  With  this  the  inquiry 
entered  upon  a  new  phase.  The  obvious 
question  rose:  If  under  certain  conditions, 
still  to  be  exactly  ascertained,  the  range  of 
human  consciousness  may  be  immeasurably 
extended,  is  it  not  possible,  nay  probable, 
that  the  prevailing  ideas  of  the  nature  of  con- 
sciousness, or  rather  of  the  nature  of  the  self, 
are  erroneous? 

To  the  solution  of  the  problem  thus  pre- 
sented, none  pressed  more  earnestly  than 

1  "Proceedings  of  the  Society  for  Psychical  Research,"  Vol.  II, 
p.  164. 


The  Subliminal  Self  33 

Frederic  Myers.  For  starting  point  he  had 
the  popular  concept  of  the  nature  of  per- 
sonality as  best  expressed  in  the  philosopher 
Reid's  "Essays  on  the  Intellectual  Powers  of 
Man:" 

"My  personal  identity,  therefore,  implies 
the  continued  existence  of  that  indivisible 
thing  which  I  call  myself.  Whatever  this  self 
may  be,  it  is  something  which  thinks  and 
deliberates  and  resolves  and  acts  and  suffers. 
I  am  not  thought,  I  am  not  action,  I  am  not 
feeling;  I  am  something  that  thinks  and  acts 
and  suffers.  My  thoughts  and  actions  and 
feelings  change  every  moment;  they  have  no 
continued,  but  a  successive,  existence;  but 
that  self,  or  I,  to  which  they  belong,  is  per- 
manent, and  has  the  same  relation  to  all  the 
succeeding  thoughts,  actions,  and  feelings 
which  I  call  mine.  .  .  .  The  identity  of  a  per- 
son is  a  perfect  identity;  wherever  it  is  real 
it  admits  of  no  degrees;  and  it  is  impossible 
that  a  person  should  be  in  part  the  same  and 
in  part  different,  because  a  person  is  a  monad 
and  is  not  divisible  into  parts.  Identity, 
when  applied  to  persons,  has  no  ambiguity, 
and  admits  not  of  degrees,  or  of  more  and 
less.  It  is  the  foundation  of  all  rights  and 


34  The  Riddle  of  Personality 

obligations,  and  of  all  accountableness;  and 
the  notion  of  it  is  fixed  and  precise."1 

Nothing  could  be  clearer  or  more  exact, 
and  as  a  statement  of  the  nature  of  person- 
ality it  had  gone  unchallenged  since  its  for- 
mulation a  century  and  more  before.  But  to 
Myers,  as  to  the  Frenchmen  who  were  now 
attacking  the  same  problem  from  another 
standpoint  and  whose  work  will  shortly  be 
reviewed,  it  seemed  to  have  lost  much  of  its 
force  by  reason  of  the  discoveries  made  since 
spiritism  and  hypnotism  had  become  subjects 
for  serious  study.  If  unity  and  continuity 
be  prime  facts  of  the  ego,  what  becomes 
of  the  ego  in  the  disintegrations  affecting 
it  during  bodily  life?  Where  locate  it  in 
insanity,  in  hysteria,  in  somnambulism,  spon- 
taneous or  induced,  in  the  trance  states  of 
mediums  apparently  surrendering  their  or- 
ganism to  the  control  of  some  extraneous 
self  ?  Still  more  perplexing  becomes  the  prob- 
lem, on  the  basis  of  the  "common  sense" 
view  of  personality,  when  there  is  involved 
complete,  or  seemingly  complete,  disintegra- 
tions such  as  those  revealed  in  the  experiences 
of  Mary  Reynolds  and  Ansel  Bourne. 

1  Essays  on  the  Intellectual  Powers  of  Man,"  By  Thomas  Reid, 
pp.  318-321. 


The  Subliminal  Self  35 

Both  of  these  cases  are  worth  relating,  not 
only  from  their  scientific  significance  but  by 
reason  of  their  intrinsic  interest.  The  former 
dates  back  to  the  opening  years  of  the  nine- 
teenth century.  One  morning  Mary,  the 
daughter  of  a  Pennsylvania  pioneer  named 
Reynolds,  was  found  in  a  deep  sleep  from 
which  it  was  impossible  to  arouse  her. 
Awakening  some  twenty  hours  later,  she 
awoke  as  a  new-born  child.  Memory  had 
vanished,  and  with  it  all  knowledge  of  the 
acquisitions  of  experience  and  education. 
Parents,  brothers,  sisters,  friends  were  un- 
recognized. To  her,  reading,  writing,  even 
talking,  were  unknown  arts,  and  had  to  be 
relearned.  It  was  noticed,  too,  that  her  tem- 
perament had  undergone  a  marked  change. 
Formerly  melancholy,  dull,  and  taciturn,  she 
now  was  cheerful,  alert,  and  social.  Thus  she 
continued  for  five  weeks  when,  after  a  long 
sleep,  she  suddenly  awoke  her  natural,  or 
at  any  rate  her  former,  self,  and  without  any 
remembrance  of  the  events  of  the  intervening 
period.  Only  a  few  weeks  more  and  she  had 
relapsed  into  the  secondary  state,  and  thus, 
alternating  between  the  two  phases,  she 
passed  her  life  from  the  age  of  twenty  to  that 


36  The  Riddle  of  Personality 

of  thirty-five,  when  she  remained  perma- 
nently in  the  secondary  condition,  not  once 
recovering  her  normal  personality  to  the  day 
of  her  death,  which  did  not  occur  until  a 
quarter  of  a  century  later. 

The  case  of  Ansel  Bourne  presents  a  differ- 
ent aspect.  Early  in  1887,  Mr.  Bourne,  an 
itinerant  preacher,  then  aged  sixty-one  and 
residing  in  the  town  of  Greene,  R.  I.,  went  to 
Providence  in  order  to  procure  money  to  pay 
for  a  farm.  After  drawing  the  money  from 
the  bank,  he  visited  the  store  of  a  nephew, 
Andrew  Harris,  and  then  started  for  his  sister's 
house,  also  in  Providence.  That  was  the  last 
known  of  his  movements  for  eight  weeks, 
when  he  was  discovered,  under  most  sensa- 
tional circumstances,  at  Norristown,  Pa.  It 
seems  that  about  a  fortnight  after  the  disap- 
pearance of  Mr.  Bourne  a  stranger  arrived 
in  Norristown  and,  under  the  name  of  A.  J. 
Brown,  rented  from  a  Mr.  Earle  a  store  which 
he  stocked  with  notions,  toys,  confectionery, 
etc.  The  store  was  part  of  the  dwelling- 
place  of  the  Earle  family,  and  as  Mr.  Brown 
lived  with  them  they  saw  him  frequently,  but 
at  no  time  observed  anything  peculiar  in  his 
demeanor.  On  the  contrary,  it  was  remarked 


The  Subliminal  Self  37 

that  he  was  exceptionally  steady-going,  me- 
thodical, and  precise.  Nobody,  in  a  word, 
suspected  that  he  might  be  laboring  under 
some  form  of  mental  vagary.  About  five 
o'clock  on  the  morning  of  March  14th,  how- 
ever, he  aroused  the  Earles  and  excitedly  de- 
manded information  as  to  his  whereabouts. 
He  denied  that  his  name  was  Brown,  and 
asserted  that  his  landlord  and  his  landlord's 
family  were  entire  strangers  to  him.  Think- 
ing that  he  had  suddenly  become  insane,  Mr. 
Earle  summoned  a  physician  who  at  Mr. 
"Brown's"  request  telegraphed  Andrew 
Harris:  "Do  you  know  Ansel  Bourne  ?  Please 
answer."  Soon  the  reply  came:  "He  is  my 
uncle.  Wire  me  where  he  is,  and  if  well. 
Write  particulars."  Subsequently  Mr.  Harris 
visited  Norristown,  disposed  of  his  uncle's 
stock  of  goods,  and  took  the  extremely  be- 
wildered Mr.  Bourne  home  with  him.  Later 
Professor  James  and  Dr.  Richard  Hodgson 
hypnotized  the  aged  preacher  and  succeeded 
in  eliciting  from  him  a  detailed  account  of  his 
doings  during  the  eight  weeks  of  his  disap- 
pearance, securing  facts  which  he  had  been 
utterly  unable  to  give  previous  to  hypnotiza- 
tion.  To  quote  from  Dr.  Hodgson's  report 
on  the  case: 


38  The  Riddle  of  Personality 

"He  said  [while  in  the  hypnotic  state]  that 
his  name  was  Albert  John  Brown,  that  on 
January  17,  1887,  he  went  from  Providence 
to  Pawtucket  in  a  horse-car,  thence  by  train 
to  Boston,  and  thence  to  New  York,  where 
he  arrived  at  9  P.M.,  and  went  to  the  Grand 
Union  Hotel,  registering  as  A.  J.  Brown.  He 
left  New  York  on  the  following  morning  and 
went  to  Newark,  N.  J.,  thence  to  Philadel- 
phia, where  he  arrived  in  the  evening,  and 
stayed  for  three  or  four  days  in  a  hotel  near 
the  depot.  It  was  kept  by  two  ladies,  but  he 
could  not  remember  their  names.  He  thought 
of  taking  a  store  in  a  small  town,  and  after 
looking  round  at  several  places,  among  them 
Germantown,  chose  Norristown,  about  twenty 
miles  from  Philadelphia,  where  he  started  a 
little  business  of  five-cent  goods,  confectionery, 
stationery,  etc. 

"He  stated  that  he  was  born  in  Newton, 
New  Hampshire,  July  8,  1826  (he  was  born 
in  New  York  City,  July  8,  1826),  had  passed 
through  a  great  deal  of  trouble,  losses  of 
friends  and  property;  loss  of  his  wife  was  one 
trouble  —  she  died  in  1881;  three  children 
living  —  but  everything  was  confused  prior 
to  his  finding  himself  in  the  horse-car  on  the 


The  Subliminal  Self  39 

way  to  Pawtucket;  he  wanted  to  get  away 
somewhere  —  he  didn't  know  where  —  and 
have  rest.  He  had  six  or  seven  hundred  dol- 
lars with  him  when  he  went  into  the  store. 
He  lived  very  closely,  boarded  by  himself, 
and  did  his  own  cooking.  He  went  to  church, 
and  also  to  one  prayer-meeting.  At  one  of 
these  meetings  he  spoke  about  a  boy  who  had 
kneeled  down  and  prayed  in  the  midst  of  the 
passengers  on  a  steamboat  from  Albany  to 
New  York  [an  incident  of  which  he  was  well 
aware  in  the  Ansel  Bourne  personality]. 

"He  had  heard  of  the  singular  experience 
of  Ansel  Bourne,  but  did  not  know  whether 
he  had  ever  met  Ansel  Bourne  or  not.  He 
had  been  a  professor  of  religion  himself  for 
many  years,  belonged  to  the  'Christian'  de- 
nomination, but  'back  there'  everything  was 
mixed  up.  He  used  to  keep  a  store  in  New- 
ton, New  Hampshire,  and  was  engaged  in 
lumber  and  trading  business  [Ansel  Bourne 
had  at  one  time  been  a  carpenter];  had  never 
previously  dealt  in  the  business  which  he 
took  up  at  Norristown.  He  kept  the  Norris- 
town  store  for  six  or  eight  weeks;  how  he  got 
away  from  there  was  all  confused;  since  then 
it  has  been  a  blank.  The  last  thing  he  re- 


40  The  Riddle  of  Personality 

membered  about  the  store  was  going  to  bed 
on  Sunday  night,  March  13,  1887.  He 
went  to  the  Methodist  Church  in  the  morning, 
walked  out  in  the  afternoon,  stayed  in  his 
room  in  the  evening  and  read  a  book.  He 
did  not  feel  'anything  out  of  the  way/  Went 
to  bed  at  eight  or  nine  o'clock,  and  remem- 
bered lying  in  bed,  but  nothing  further. 

"The  statements  made  by  Mr.  Bourne  in 
trance  concerning  his  doings  in  Norristown 
agree  with  those  made  by  his  landlord  there 
and  other  persons;  but  since  Mr.  Bourne,  in 
his  normal  state,  has  heard  of  these,  they 
afforded  no  presumption  in  favor  of  the  cor- 
rectness of  his  statements  concerning  the  first 
two  weeks  of  his  absence,  those  which  imme- 
diately preceded  his  arrival  in  Norristown. 
The  register-books  of  the  hotels  had  been 
destroyed,  so  that  we  were  unable  to  trace 
his  travels  in  detail  by  finding  the  name  'A.  J. 
Brown'  at  the  hotels  which  he  described  him- 
self as  having  visited.  We  have,  however, 
through  the  kindness  of  Mr.  William  Romaine 
Newbold,  lecturer  on  psychology  in  the  Uni- 
versity of  Pennsylvania,  ascertained  that  he 
boarded  for  a  week  or  more  at  the  Kellogg 
House,  Nos.  1605-7  Filbert  Street,  Phila- 


The  Subliminal  Self  41 

delphia.  Mr.  Newbold's  report  seems  to 
establish  the  general  trustworthiness  of  Mr. 
Bourne's  account  (in  trance)  of  his  doings 
before  going  to  Norristown." 

Bearing  in  mind  a  peculiar  incident  that 
had  occurred  in  Mr.  Bourne's  life  thirty  years 
before  —  when  he  was  stricken  deaf,  dumb, 
and  blind,  after  declaring  that  he  would 
rather  lose  his  speech  and  hearing  than  go  to 
church  — Dr.  Hodgson  came  to  the  conclusion 
that  Mr.  Bourne  had  been  subject  to  some 
form  of  epilepsy,  and  that  during  his  Brown 
experience  he  was  suffering  from  a  post- 
epileptic  loss  of  memory.  This  conclusion 
found  further  corroboration  from  the  fact  that 
he  had  had  several  " fainting  fits"  in  the  course 
of  his  life.  But  it  was  impossible  to  indicate 
the  exact  source  of  the  creation  of  the  singular 
"Brown"  personality.1 

Recalling  cases  such  as  these,  and  com- 
paring them  with  the  minor  disintegrations  of 

1  For  detailed  accounts  of  the  Reynolds  case  the  reader  is  referred 
to  Dr.  Weir  Mitchell's  report  in  the  "Transactions  of  the  College 
of  Physicians  of  Philadelphia,"  April  4,  1888;  "The  Principles  of 
Psychology,"  by  William  James,  Vol.  I,  pp.  381-384;  or  "Mary 
Reynolds,"  by  the  Rev.  W.  S.  Plummer,  an  article  in  Harper's  Maga- 
zine for  May,  1860.  The  Bourne  case  is  discussed  at  considerable 
length  in  the  "Proceedings  of  the  Society  for  Psychical  Research," 
Vol.  VII,  pp.  221-258,  from  which  the  above  extract  was  taken. 


42  The  Riddle  o]  Personality 

trance  and  hypnotic  phenomena,  Myers  also 
approached  the  problem  of  the  self  from  the 
vantage  ground  afforded  by  the  telepathic  ex- 
periments and  by  the  society's  long  record  of 
hallucinatory  visions  of  the  dying  or  the  dead, 
or  of  those  in  moments  of  crisis  not  neces- 
sarily fatal.1  The  more  he  studied,  the  deeper 
grew  his  conviction  that  the  self  is  both  a 
unity  and  a  coordination,  and  further,  that  it 
possesses  faculties  and  powers  unexercised  and 
unexercisable  by  the  consciousness  that  finds 
employment  in  the  direction  of  the  affairs  of 
every-day  life.  It  was  in  1887  that  he  first 
tentatively  put  forth  his  hypothesis  of  the 
"subliminal  self,"  but  it  was  not  until  1903 
that  his  final  elaboration  of  it  was  given  to  the 
world  in  the  posthumously  published  "Hu- 
man Personality  and  Its  Survival  of  Bodily 
Death,"  which  will  prove  an  enduring  monu- 
ment to  its  author's  long  and  useful  labors, 
and  which,  whatever  opinion  be  formed  con- 
cerning its  conclusions  on  the  evidence  for 
"survival,"  must  be  accounted  one  of  the 
generation's  most  searching  contributions  to 
the  study  of  personality.  There  has  been  a 
vast  deal  of  needless  controversy  concerning 

1  See  Appendix  II. 


The  Subliminal  Self  43 

what  Myers  exactly  meant  by  the  "subliminal 
self."  At  the  outset  of  his  magnum  opus,  we 
find  his  theory  stated  in  language  that  could 
not  well  be  more  explicit: 

"The  idea  of  a  threshold  (limen,  Schwelle) 
of  consciousness  —  of  a  level  above  which 
sensation  or  thought  must  rise  before  it  can 
enter  into  our  conscious  life  —  is  a  simple  and 
familiar  one.  The  word  subliminal  —  mean- 
ing *  beneath  the  threshold '  -  has  already 
been  used  to  define  those  sensations  which  are 
too  feeble  to  be  individually  recognized.  I 
propose  to  extend  the  meaning  of  the  term, 
so  as  to  make  it  cover  all  that  takes  place 
beneath  the  ordinary  threshold,  or  say,  if 
preferred,  the  ordinary  margin  of  conscious- 
ness —  not  only  those  faint  stimulations  whose 
very  faintness  keeps  them  submerged,  but 
much  else  which  psychology  as  yet  scarcely 
recognizes:  sensations,  thoughts,  emotions, 
which  may  be  strong,  definite,  and  independ- 
ent, but  which,  by  the  original  constitution  of 
our  being,  seldom  merge  into  that  supra- 
liminal  current  of  consciousness  which  we 
habitually  identify  wTith  ourselves.  Perceiving 
.  .  .  that  these  submerged  thoughts  and  emo- 
tions possess  the  characteristics  which  we 


44  The  Riddle  of  Personality 

associate  with  conscious  life,  I  feel  bound  to 
speak  of  a  subliminal,  or  ultra-marginal,  con- 
sciousness —  a  consciousness  which  we  shall 
see,  for  instance,  uttering  or  writing  sen- 
tences quite  as  complex  and  coherent  as  the 
supraliminal  consciousness  could  make  them. 
Perceiving  further  that  this  conscious  life  be- 
neath the  threshold  or  beyond  the  margin 
seems  to  be  no  discontinuous  or  intermittent 
thing;  that  not  only  are  these  isolated  sub- 
liminal processes  comparable  with  isolated 
supraliminal  processes  (as  when  a  problem 
is  solved  by  some  unknown  procedure  in  a 
dream),  but  that  there  also  is  a  continuous 
subliminal  chain  of  memory  (or  more  chains 
than  one)  involving  just  that  kind  of  in- 
dividual and  persistent  revival  of  old  impres- 
sions and  response  to  new  ones,  which  we 
commonly  call  a  Self  —  I  find  it  permissible 
and  convenient  to  speak  of  subliminal  Selves, 
or  more  briefly  of  a  subliminal  Self.  I  do  not 
indeed  by  using  this  term  assume  that  there 
are  two  correlative  and  parallel  selves  existing 
always  within  each  of  us.  Rather  I  mean  by 
the  subliminal  Self  that  part  of  the  Self  which 
is  commonly  subliminal;  and  I  conceive  that 
there  may  be  —  not  only  cooperations  between 


The  Subliminal  Self  45 

these  quasi-independent  trains  of  thought  — 
but  also  upheavals  and  alternations  of  per- 
sonality of  many  kinds,  so  that  what  was 
once  below  the  surface  may  for  a  time,  or 
permanently,  rise  above  it.  And  I  conceive 
also  that  no  Self  of  which  we  can  here  have 
cognizance  is  in  reality  more  than  a  fragment 
of  a  larger  Self  —  revealed  in  a  fashion  at 
once  shifting  and  limited  through  an  organism 
not  so  framed  as  to  afford  it  full  manifesta- 
tion." 1 

Here,  in  a  paragraph,  is  Myers's  famous 
theory  of  the  subliminal  self.  Daring  in  con- 
ception, it  was  applied  by  him  with  even 
greater  boldness.  It  was  not  enough  to 
utilize  it  as  an  excellent  working  hypothesis 
to  explain  on  a  naturalistic  basis  phenomena 
which  he  and  his  associates  in  the  Society  for 
Psychical  Research  had  made  it  impossible 
for  science  longer  to  ignore.  If  on  the  one 
hand  it  could  be  plausibly  maintained  by  him 
that,  for  example,  men  of  genius  owre  their 
fame  to  a  capacity  for  utilizing  powers  which 
lie  too  deep  below  the  threshold  of  con- 
sciousness for  the  ordinary  man's  control; 

1  "Human  Personality  and  Its  Survival  of  Bodily  Death,"  Vol.  I, 
p.  14. 


46  The  Riddle  of  Personality 

that  the  appeal  of  the  hypnotist  is  to  the  sub- 
liminal not  the  supraliruinal  self,  and  that  it  is 
the  subliminal  self  that  sends  and  receives 
telepathic  messages,  he  could  on  the  other 
hand  see  every  reason  for  affirming  that  the 
indwelling  principle,  unifying  the  subliminal 
and  supraliminal,  persists  after  the  death  and 
decay  of  the  bodily  organism,  and  that  this 
indwelling  principle,  call  it  "soul,"  "spirit,'* 
or  what  one  will,  has  been  actually  observed 
in  operation  apart  from  the  bodily  organism 
and  after  the  destruction  of  that  organism. 
More  than  this,  he  did  not  hesitate  to  launch 
into  speculation,  formulating  a  cosmic  philos- 
ophy resting  on  what  was  to  him  the  proved 
existence  and  influence  of  a  spiritual  world 
and  the  proved  interchange  of  thought  be- 
tween that  world  and  the  world  of  earth  life. 
Accordingly,  it  is  not  surprising  to  find  that 
his  views  and  the  theory  out  of  which  they 
grew  have  been  subjected  to  the  most  caustic 
criticism;  and  that  there  has  been,  as  an  in- 
evitable consequence  of  this  criticism,  a  tend- 
ency to  lose  sight  of  the  immediate  benefits  to 
be  derived  by  conscientious  exploration  of  the 
border  land  region  invaded  by  this  intrepid 
adventurer  into  the  unknown. 


The  Subliminal  Self  47 

Undoubtedly  one  reason  why  the  theory  of 
the  subliminal  self  has  been  received  with  in- 
credulity lies  in  the  fact  that  it  owes  existence 
largely  to  another  theory  not  yet  generally 
accepted  by  the  scientific  world.  The  refer- 
ence is  to  telepathy.  In  the  face  of  the  re- 
peatedly successful  experiments  by  independ- 
ent investigators,  such  as  the  late  Thomson 
Jay  Hudson,  as  well  as  by  the  Society  for 
Psychical  Research,  and  notwithstanding  the 
great  mass  of  well-authenticated  evidence 
pointing  to  the  operation  of  spontaneous 
telepathy,  there  is  a  strong  disposition  in 
scientific  circles  to  deem  the  case  for  telepathy 
"not  proven."  Nor  do  those  scientists,  the 
psychologists,  who  should  be  to  the  fore  in 
testing  the  validity  of  the  telepathic  hypothe- 
sis, show  any  inclination  as  a  body  to  prosecute 
a  vigorous  inquest.  Here  and  there  are  to  be 
found  individual  psychologists  who,  with  the 
intellectual  fearlessness  of  a  William  James, 
strike  boldly  from  the  primrose  path  of  easy- 
going skepticism.  But  the  lamentable  truth 
remains  that  most  psychologists  are  still  so 
completely  under  the  domination  of  the  con- 
cepts of  the  "classical"  school  as  to  prefer, 
if  possible,  to  explain  away  rather  than  in- 


48  The  Riddle  of  Personality 

vestigate.  Before  them  ever  looms  the  bogy 
of  "spiritism,"  and  they  shudder  at  the 
thought  of  being  identified  in  the  popular 
consciousness  with  the  "psychical  researchers." 
They  fail  to  realize  that  it  may  not  be  neces- 
sary to  accept  the  supernatural  implications 
that  enthusiasts  have  read  into  telepathy,  the 
subliminal  self,  and  the  like.  They  fail,  too, 
to  realize  that  unless  they  would  see  them- 
selves utterly  discredited  they  must  widen 
the  range  of  their  activities  to  include  not 
only  the  lecture-room,  the  library,  and  the 
laboratory  where,  year  after  year,  routine 
experiments  are  faithfully  performed,  but 
also  the  prison,  the  hospital,  the  asylum, 
the  street;  every  place,  in  fine,  where  ab- 
normal man  jostles  normal  and  the  multifold 
vagaries  of  the  human  mind  are  to  be  en- 
countered. 

Indeed,  nothing  could  make  clearer  the 
limited  point  of  view  of  the  orthodox  psychol- 
ogist than  the  criticisms  he  has  leveled  against 
the  theory  of  the  subliminal  self.  When  the 
advocate  of  that  theory,  in  deference  to  his 
critic's  strenuous  protest,  discards  the  argu- 
ment from  telepathy  and  advances,  say,  the 
argument  from  cases  of  the  Bourne  and  Rey- 


The  Subliminal  Self  49 

nolds  type,  he  is  met  with  the  contemptuous 
retort  that,  in  all  likelihood,  both  the  changes 
in  ideas  and  trains  of  thought  and  the  changes 
in  character  and  temperament  are  due  alto- 
gether to  physical  causes,  to  changes  in  the 
supply  of  blood  to  the  brain.  Satisfactory  as 
this  reply  may  seem  to  him  who  makes  it,  he 
completely  overlooks  the  fact  that  it  takes  no 
account  of  the  psychical  significance  of  the 
phenomena  involved;  that,  in  other  words, 
while  the  problem  of  causation  may  be  quite 
correctly  given  a  physiological  explanation, 
the  deeper  problem  of  why  the  resultant 
changes  take  the  particular  forms  they  mani- 
fest remains  untouched.  Or  when  the  expo- 
nent of  the  subliminal  cites  as  evidence  of 
subliminal  action  the  marvels  accomplished  by 
the  so-called  lightning  calculators,  the  Dases, 
the  Mangiameles,  it  is  hardly  to  the  point  to 
plead  that  the  peculiar  gifts  of  the  arith- 
metical prodigies  are  merely  "automatic." 
This,  however,  is  the  favorite  explanation 
of  the  orthodox  psychologist,  a  figurative 
shrug  of  the  shoulders,  delightfully  easy,  but  — 
explaining  nothing.  And  thus  every  argu- 
ment in  behalf  of  the  subliminal  self  is  met 
by  denial,  by  evasion,  or  when  neither  denial 


50  The  Riddle  of  Personality 

or    evasion    is    possible,    by    a    half-hearted 
acceptance. 

It  is  only  fair  to  the  psychologist  to  say  that 
had  not  extremists,  following  the  lead  of 
Myers,  pushed  the  hypothesis  to  unwarranted 
lengths,  he  might  long  ere  this  have  met  the 
advocate  of  the  subliminal  more  than  half- 
way. Thus,  the  latest  pronouncement  on  the 
subject  from  a  writer  of  the  orthodox  school 
is  not  merely  significant  as  a  faint-hearted, 
last-trench  defense  of  a  position  even  now 
untenable;  it  also  indicates  plainly  the  dread 
that  has  inspired  the  defenders  to  delay 
capitulation.  '  The  very  latitude  of  the  theory 
of  the  subliminal  self,"  writes  Professor  Jas- 
trow,  "makes  it  hospitable  to  a  wide  range  of 
considerations  —  many  of  them  supported  by 
questionable  data  and  strained  interpretations 
-  and  renders  it  liable  to  affiliation  with 
*  occult'  conceptions  of  every  shade  and  grade 
of  extravagance."1  Yet  Professor  Jastrow  him- 
self is  forced  to  the  admission  that,  barring 
the,  supernatural  implications  of  the  theory, 
it  closely  accords  with  the  view  he  entertains. 
We  find  him  writing: 

"It  is  proper  to  point  out  that  in  the  in- 

1  "The  Subconscious."     By  Joseph  Jastrow,  p.  535. 


The  Subliminal  Self  51 

trinsic  worth  and  to  a  considerable  measure 
the  mutual  relations  assigned  to  the  several 
groups  of  phenomena,  the  two  views  have  a 
common  interest,  even  common  points  of 
emphasis.  Both  find  a  place,  though  a  differ- 
ent one,  in  the  mental  economy,  for  modes  of 
achievement  or  for  participation  therein,  that 
are  preponderantly  not  of  the  fully  conscious 
order :  both  recognize  the  disordering  of  mental 
impairment  and  the  significance  of  variations 
in  mental  endowment,  though  with  but  modest 
agreement  upon  their  interpretation;  for  the 
one  view  ever  holds  aloof  from  the  super- 
natural implications  of  the  other,  and  looks 
upon  all  the  achievements  of  mind  as  brought 
about,  not  by  any  release  of  cramping  limita- 
tions, but  by  favoring  development  of  the 
highest  natural  potentialities."  * 

The  surrender  of  the  psychologists  cannot 
be  long  delayed,  and  with  their  surrender 
must  come  a  notable  enlargement  of  our 
knowledge  of  the  nature  and  capacities  of 
human  personality.  Fortunately,  practical  re- 
sults of  the  highest  order  have  already  fol- 
lowed the  discovery  of  the  subliminal  powers 
of  man.  To  ascertain  these  it  is  necessary, 

Subconscious."     By  Joseph  Jastrow,  p.  540. 


52  The  Riddle  of  Personality 

for  the  moment,  to  pause  in  our  contempla- 
tion of  the  labors  of  the  Society  for  Psychical 
Research,  and,  crossing  the  English  Channel, 
set  foot  once  more  in  the  land  where  Mesmer 
won  fame  and  fortune. 


CHAPTER  III 

"PIONEERS  OF  FRANCE  IN  THE  NEW 
WORLD" 

FRANCE  may  well  be  called  the  cradle 
of  the  scientific  study  of  personality. 
It  was  there,  as  will  be  remembered, 
that  Mesmer  fiVst  drew  popular  attention  to 
the  phenomena  of  hypnotism,  and  thus  raised 
doubts  as  to  the  correctness  of  the  habitual 
view  of  the  nature  of  the  self;  it  was  there  that 
Bertrand  discerned  the  great  fact  of  sugges- 
tion underlying  and  animating  all  hypnotic 
manifestations;  and  if,  with  the  researches  of 
Esdaile,  Elliotson,  and  Braid,  England  for 
the  time  assumed  leadership  in  this  field  of 
research,  France  since  Braid's  day  has  re- 
gained and  continues  to  hold  premier  place. 
It  is  unquestionably  true  that,  from  the  the- 
oretical and  philosophical  standpoint,  Eng- 
land is  to-day  in  a  unique  position,  thanks  to 
the  labors  of  Sidgwick,  Myers,  Gurney,  and 
their  associates  in  the  Society  for  Psychical 

53 


54  The  Riddle  of  Personality 

Research.  But  in  respect  to  practicality,  to 
the  application  of  the  new  knowledge  to  pur- 
poses immediately  beneficial  to  mankind, 
there  is  no  country  that  has  achieved  as  much 
as  France.  Since,  therefore,  any  survey  of 
the  subject  would  be  incomplete  without  mak- 
ing clear  the  concrete  as  well  as  abstract  gains 
effected,  it  is  not  only  desirable  but  necessary 
to  review  the  work  of  those  who  may  with 
peculiar  fitness  be  termed  pioneers  of  France 
in  a  new  world. 

A  Frenchman,  indeed,  was  the  legitimate 
inheriter  of  the  mantle  of  Braid.  This  was 
Dr.  A.  A.  Liebeault,  now  famous  the  world 
over  as  the  founder  of  psychotherapeutics, 
or  the  science  of  healing  by  suggestion.  Lie- 
beault, who  was  born  in  1823,  began  to  study 
mesmerism  in  a  desultory  way  as  early  as 
1848.  But  it  was  not  until  1860,  the  year  of 
Braid's  death,  that  he  undertook  systematic 
research  with  a  view  to  ascertaining  its  effi- 
cacy as  an  adjunct  to  medicine.  A  poverty- 
stricken  country  doctor,  always  hard  pressed 
to  earn  a  livelihood,  he  did  not  hesitate  to 
make  great  sacrifices  to  attain  his  object. 
To  his  thriftily  inclined  peasant  clientele  he 
announced:  "If  you  wish  to  be  treated  by 


"Pioneers  o]  France  in  New  World"       55 

drugs  as  of  old,  I  will  so  treat  you,  but  you 
will  have  to  pay  my  fees ;  if,  however,  you  allow 
me  to  treat  you  by  mesmerism,  I  will  do  so 
free  of  charge."  In  this  way  he  secured 
many  patients  suffering  from  the  most  varied 
ailments,  and  the  cures  he  effected  brought 
him  fame  throughout  the  countryside.  Soon 
he  removed  to  the  town  of  Nancy,  where  he 
based  his  practice  entirely  on  mesmerism  — 
or  hypnotism,  to  use  the  term  then  being 
generally  adopted  —  and  devoted  himself  to 
the  relief  of  the  afflicted  poor.  In  his  view, 
as  in  that  of  the  "school"  of  which  he  later 
became  the  head,  the  induction  of  hypnosis 
and  all  the  phenomena  of  hypnotism  are  due 
to  nothing  but  suggestion,  and  the  hypnotic 
trance  itself  is  of  the  nature  of  sleep.  These 
opinions  he  set  forth  in  a  book  which  he  pub- 
lished in  1866,  but  which  attracted  so  little 
attention  that,  it  is  said,  only  one  copy  was 
sold.  The  time  was  not  yet  ripe  for  wide 
acceptance  of  the  marvels  of  hypnotism,  and 
if  the  peasantry,  rid  of  their  ills,  blessed  him 
as  "the  good  father  Liebeault,"  his  medical 
colleagues  deemed  him  a  fanatic  if  not  a  mad- 
man. 

In  fact,  general  appreciation  of  the  services 


56  The  Riddle  of  Personality 

Liebeault  was  rendering  did  not  come  until 
1882,  when  a  case  of  sciatica  of  six  years' 
standing  was  reported  as  having  been  cured 
by  him.  It  happened  that  the  patient  had 
been  treated  by  the  celebrated  Dr.  Bernheim 
of  the  College  of  Nancy,  and  the  latter,  de- 
sirous of  meeting  the  man  who  had  succeeded 
where  he  had  failed,  paid  a  visit  to  Liebeault's 
clinic.  He  came  as  a  skeptic,  but  what  he 
saw  shook  his  skepticism  to  its  foundations. 
A  small  outer  room  was  crowded  with  patients, 
victims  of  all  manner  of  maladies,  but  singu- 
larly hopeful  and  cheerful,  chatting  together 
with  a  vivacity  unknown  in  the  mournful 
waiting  room  of  the  orthodox  physician.  In 
an  inner  chamber  Liebeault,  of  unimposing 
presence  but  of  a  countenance  that  radiated 
kindness  and  strength,  hypnotized  each  in 
turn  and  with  wonderful  rapidity.  It  was 
seldom  that  more  than  ten  minutes  elapsed 
between  the  entry  and  departure  of  a  patient. 
"Sit  down,  think  of  nothing,  absolutely 
nothing.  Look  at  me.  There,  you  are  going 
to  sleep  already,  your  eyes  are  heavy,  you  can- 
not open  them.  No,  there  is  no  use  of  trying. 
My  voice  seems  distant  to  you.  You  are 
asleep,  asleep,  asleep.  Sleep  then,  my  friend." 


''Pioneers  o]  France  in  New  World"       57 

Thus,  with  variations,  ran  his  formula. 
Sometimes  he  had  but  to  pronounce  the  word 
"Sleep!"  and  the  patient  was  entranced. 
Then  would  follow  curative  suggestions,  im- 
pressing upon  the  sleeper's  mind  the  fact  that 
the  painful  symptoms  would  be  ameliorated 
and  finally  disappear,  that  he  would  be  free 
from  insomnia,  enjoy  good  digestion,  et  cetera. 

"But  do  you  mean,"  cried  Bernheim,  as 
he  watched  the  patients  come  and  go,  "do 
you  mean  that  by  telling  these  people  that 
they  will  regain  health  they  actually  regain 
it?" 

"Not  always,  but  often." 

"How,  then,  do  you  do  it?" 

"As  yet  I  do  not  know.  Come  and  help 
me  learn." 

And  Bernheim  came,  not  once  but  many 
times;  in  the  end  to  associate  himself  with 
Liebeault's  labors,  and  to  bring  as  coworkers 
two  other  scientists  of  wide  reputation,  Dr. 
Liegeois  and  Professor  Beaunis,  the  first  to 
study  hypnotism  in  its  legal  aspects,  the  sec- 
ond to  explore  it  from  the  physiological  stand- 
point. Now  Liebeault's  reputation  advanced 
by  leaps  and  bounds,  became  national,  even 
international;  now  the  first  edition  of  his  long- 


58  The  Riddle  of  Personality 

neglected  book  was  speedily  exhausted;  and 
now  savants  of  all  countries  turned  their  steps 
to  Nancy. 

Meanwhile  another  Frenchman,  Dr.  Char- 
cot,  had  been  working  vigorously  in  the  effort 
to  arouse  the  scientific  as  well  as  the  general 
public  to  the  importance  of  hypnotism.  Char- 
cot,  however,  was  handicapped  from  the  out- 
set by  theories  which  from  their  very  nature 
tended  to  retard  his  progress.  Unlike  Lie- 
beault  he  affirmed  that  hypnosis  was  essen- 
tially a  pathological  condition  akin  to  hysteria, 
and  unlike  Liebeault  again  he  confined  his 
experiments  to  one  class  of  subjects,  hysterical 
patients,  and  principally  to  the  patients  in 
the  Salpetriere,  the  great  Parisian  asylum  with 
which  he  was  connected.  'There  were  two 
reasons  for  this,"  he  once  explained,  "first, 
because  the  practice  of  hypnotization  is  by 
no  means  free  from  danger  to  whoever  may 
be  subjected  to  it;  and,  secondly,  because  not 
infrequently  we  see  hysteric  symptoms  mani- 
fest themselves  at  the  first  attempt  of  this 
kind,  which  may  thus  be  the  occasional  cause 
of  this  neurosis.  One  avoids  this  danger,  and 
consequently  a  heavy  responsibility,  by  operat- 
ing, as  I  have  ever  done,  only  upon  subjects 


"Pioneers  of  France  in  New  World"       59 

that  are  manifestly  hysterical.  The  second 
reason  why  I  have  always  preferred  to  act 
in  this  way  ...  is  that  hysterical  subjects 
are  as  a  rule  much  more  sensitive  than  persons 
reputed  to  be  in  sound  health."  1 

Charcot  stoutly  denied  that  suggestion 
played  any  important  role  in  hypnotism,  and 
he  employed  purely  physical  means  to  induce 
the  hypnotic  state.  Sometimes  he  would  fol- 
low the  Braidian  method  of  having  the  patient 
gaze  steadily  at  a  small  bright  object;  some- 
times he  would  substitute  for  protracted  gaz- 
ing suddenness  and  intensity  of  impression 
by  unexpectedly  exposing  before  the  patient's 
eyes  a  powerful  electric  or  magnesium  light, 
or  by  clanging  a  gong.  "The  instrument 
being  struck,  the  patient  not  expecting  it,  she 
is  seen  to  become  suddenly  motionless,  as 
though  frozen  where  she  stands,  fixed  in  the 
gesture  she  may  have  been  making  when  the 
gong  was  sounded."1  But  this  last  method 
not  infrequently  brought  on  attacks  of  hys- 
teria instead  of  the  hypnotic  trance,  and  even 
Charcot  admitted  that  it  was  "a  rather  brutal 
expedient."  For  our  present  purpose  it  is 
not  necessary  to  inquire  into  the  merits  of 

i  The  Forum,  Vol.  VIII,  p.  566  et  seq. 


60  The  Riddle  of  Personality 

the  controversy  provoked  by  his  theories  and 
methods,  and  which  is  still  in  progress.  Our 
concern  is  with  results,  and  however  much 
the  Salpetriere  school  of  hypnotism  may  be 
in  error,  its  founder  and  his  disciples,  notably 
Pierre  Janet  and  Alfred  Binet,  have  in  no 
small  measure  advanced  our  knowledge  of 
the  true  nature  of  man.  This,  though,  must 
be  said,  that  had  not  Bernheim,  Beaunis,  and 
Liegeois  associated  themselves  with  Liebeault 
when  they  did,  hypnotism  must  have  lan- 
guished longer  in  disrepute,  for  Charcot  was 
far  from  persuading  the  scientific  world  of  its 
rationality.1 

1  The  essential  points  of  difference  between  the  tenets  of  the 
two  schools  were  well  indicated  a  few  years  ago  by  Dr.  Babinski,  a 
well-known  pupil  of  Charcot's.  Addressing  the  International  Con- 
gress of  Experimental  Psychology,  Dr.  Babinski  stated  that  while 
the  Paris  school  did  not  deny  that  the  hypnotic  condition  might  be 
induced  in  other  than  hysterical  patients,  it  insisted  that  they  were 
pre-eminently  the  best  subjects.  And  although  it  admitted  that 
suggestion  must  be  taken  into  account,  it  held  that  suggestion  should 
by  no  means  be  considered  the  great  source  of  hypnotic  phenomena. 
If,  as  was  characteristic,  a  patient  unacquainted  with  medical  facts 
and  entirely  ignorant  of  hypnotism  showed,  when  hypnotized,  the 
characteristics  which  belonged  to  the  first  of  the  three  consecutive 
hypnotic  stages  described  by  Charcot,  Dr.  Babinski  deemed  it 
impossible  to  believe  that  suggestion  was  the  cause.  Why,  he 
demanded,  should  the  characteristic  muscular  state  be  contracture 
rather  than  paralysis,  tremor,  or  any  other  symptom?  And  after 
M.  Bernheim  had  produced  hypnotic  sleep,  as  he  claimed,  by  sug- 


"Pioneers  of  France  in  New  World"       61 

From  the  standpoint  of  personality  the  re- 
searches of  both  schools  have  been  significant 
in  two  important  ways  —  first,  in  proving 
the  complexity  and  divisibility  of  the  self,  and, 
second,  in  focusing  attention  on  the  possi- 
bility of  manipulating  this  complexity  and 
divisibility  to  repair  the  ravages  of  disease  in 
the  bodily  organism,  as  also  to  provide  the 
individual  with  means  of  better  adjusting 
himself,  morally  and  intellectually,  to  his  en- 
vironment. Almost  from  the  first  the  French 
investigators  were  forced  to  recognize  the 
fact  that  under  the  hypnotic  influence  per- 
sonality is  subject  to  strange  alterations. 
Indeed,  even  before  they  began  to  gain  any 

gestion  alone,  why  did  he  find  anaesthesia,  or  loss  of  feeling,  which 
he  had  not  suggested?  Dr.  Babinski  acknowledged  that  it  had 
been  claimed  by  the  Nancy  school  that  Charcot's  three  stages  — 
the  lethargic,  the  cataleptic,  and  the  somnambulic  —  were  themselves 
the  result  of  suggestion.  But  even  if  that  were  possible,  which  he 
denied,  it  would  not  explain  their  occurrence  in  the  first  cases  where 
they  were  observed.  It  should  be  pointed  out,  however,  that  this 
able  defense  of  the  Paris  school  fails  to  meet  the  chief  criticism,  so 
finely  expressed  by  Myers:  "One  feels  that  the  Salpetriere  has,  in  a 
sense,  been  smothered  in  its  own  abundance.  The  richest  collection 
of  hysterics  which  the  world  has  ever  seen,  it  has  also  (one  fears) 
become  a  kind  of  unconscious  school  of  these  unconscious  prophets 
—  a  milieu  where  the  new  arrival  learns  insensibly,  from  the  very 
atmosphere  of  experiment  around  her,  to  adopt  her  own  reflexes  or 
responses  to  the  subtly  divined  expectations  of  the  operator."  — 
"Proceedings  of  the  Society  for  Psychical  Research,"  Vol.  VI,  p.  200. 


62  The  Riddle  of  Personality 

insight  into  the  mechanism  of  these  altera- 
tions there  was  suggested  to  them,  by  the 
peculiar  case  of  Felida  X.,  the  possibility  that 
every  human  being  is  born  with  at  least  the 
germ  of  a  secondary  personality  latent  within 
him.1 

Felida  was  a  native  of  Bordeaux,  the 
daughter  of  a  sea  captain,  and  until  her 
thirteenth  year  seemed  like  any  normal  child. 
Then,  however,  she  manifested  tendencies  to 
hysteria,  and  a  little  later  fell  periodically 

1  The  great  importance  of  this  case  in  the  development  of  the 
scientific  study  of  personality  is  well  stated  by  Professor  Pierre  Janet 
in  a  recent  work  giving  permanent  form  to  the  lectures  given  by  him 
at  the  Harvard  Medical  School  in  the  autumn  of  1906.  "Allow  me," 
observes  Professor  Janet,  "to  make  you  acquainted  with  Felida. 
She  is  a  very  remarkable  personage  who  has  played  a  rather  im- 
portant part  in  the  history  of  ideas.  Do  not  forget  that  this  humble 
person  was  the  educator  of  Taine  and  Ribot.  Her  history  was  the 
great  argument  of  which  the  positivist  psychologists  made  use  at  the 
time  of  the  heroic  struggles  against  the  spiritualistic  dogmatism  of 
Cousin's  school.  But  for  Felida  it  is  not  certain  that  there  would 
be  a  professorship  of  psychology  at  the  College  de  France,  and  that 
I  should  be  here,  speaking  to  you  of  the  mental  state  of  hystericals. 
It  is  a  physician  of  Bordeaux  who  has  attached  his  name  to  the 
history  of  Felida :  Azam  reported  this  astonishing  history,  first  at  the 
Society  of  Surgery,  then  at  the  Academy  of  Medicine,  in  January, 
1860.  He  entitled  his  communication,  'Note  on  Nervous  Sleep  or 
Hypnotism,'  and  spoke  of  this  case  in  connection  with  the  discussion 
of  the  existence  of  an  abnormal  sleep  during  which  it  would  be  pos- 
sible to  operate  without  pain.  And  this  communication,  thus  in- 
cidentally made,  was  to  revolutionize  psychology  in  fifty  years."  — 
"The  Major  Symptoms  of  Hysteria,"  pp.  78-79. 


"Pioneers  of  France  in  New  World"       63 

and  quite  spontaneously  into  a  trancelike 
condition,  out  of  which  she  would  emerge 
the  possessor  of  characteristics  radically  dif- 
ferent from  those  of  her  normal  self.  Oddly 
enough,  the  secondary  Felida  was  a  con- 
spicuous improvement  over  the  primary  Fe- 
lida, who  was  of  a  melancholy,  fretful,  and 
taciturn  disposition,  whereas  the  trances  left 
her  buoyant,  vivacious,  and  social.  What 
was  still  more  striking,  when  in  the  secondary 
state  she  had  a  clear  memory  for  all  the 
events  of  both  states,  but  when  her  normal 
self  knew  nothing  of  the  happenings  of  the 
secondary  condition.  Before  she  was  fifteen 
the  alterations  of  personality  occurred  so  often 
that  her  parents  called  in  a  physician,  Dr. 
Azam,  of  Bordeaux,  who  has  left  a  graphic 
account  of  her  mysterious  history.  Every 
means  was  tried  in  vain  to  check  the  recur- 
rence of  her  "crises,"  but,  happily,  her  malady 
ultimately  worked  its  own  cure.  Little  by 
little  the  secondary  state  gained  command 
over  the  primary,  until  the  latter  finally  ap- 
peared only  at  rare  intervals,  and  the  patient 
thus  became  a  new  woman  in  the  strictest 
sense  of  the  term.  In  no  way  did  she  suffer 
inconvenience  save  when  lapsing  into  her 


64  The  Riddle  of  Personality 

primary  self,  for  each  such  lapse  meant  a  loss 
of  memory  for  the  occurrences  of  a  now 
lengthy  period.  "She  then,"  we  are  told, 
"knew  nothing  of  the  dog  that  played  at  her 
feet,  or  of  the  acquaintance  of  yesterday.  She 
knew  nothing  of  her  household  arrangements, 
her  business  undertakings,  her  social  duties." 
Making  a  virtue  of  necessity,  Felida  accus- 
tomed herself,  whenever  she  felt  the  premoni- 
tory symptoms  of  an  attack,  to  write  letters 
to  her  other  self,  giving  full  directions  as  to  the 
conduct  of  her  domestic  and  social  affairs, 
and  in  this  way  she  was  enabled  to  bridge 
the  gap  in  memory  to  some  extent.  It  was  in 
1858  that  Dr.  Azam  first  studied  her,  and 
when  he  last  reported  on  her  case,  in  1887, 
she  was  married,  was  the  happy  mother  of  a 
family,  and  was  constantly  in  the  secondary 
state  excepting  for  lapses  of  but  a  few  hours' 
duration  occurring  only  six  or  seven  times  a 
year. 

Once  scientific  experimentation  with  hys- 
terical subjects  began  in  earnest,  it  was  seen 
that  Felida's,  while  an  exceptional,  was  by  no 
means  an  isolated  case.  From  Paris,  from 
Havre,  from  La  Rochelle,  from  other  parts 
of  France,  came  reports  of  instances  of  alter- 


"Pioneers  of  France  in  New  World"       65 

nate  and  even  multiple  personality.  It  would 
be  tedious  to  recite  the  details  of  these  cases, 
accounts  of  which  are  accessible  in  numerous 
publications.  But  something  must  be  said 
of  at  least  one,  remarkable  both  for  its  phe- 
nomena and  the  care  with  which  it  has  been 
studied.  Of  the  subject,  the  peasant  wife  of 
a  charcoal  burner,  F.  W.  H.  Myers  could  at 
one  time  justly  write:  "There  is  perhaps  no 
one  in  France  whose  personal  history  is 
watched  with  so  keen  an  interest  by  such  a 
group  of  scientific  men."  In  her  normal 
state  Madame  B.  was  a  timid,  dull,  unedu- 
cated woman.  When  hypnotized  she  at  once 
became  bright,  vivacious,  quick-witted,  even 
mischievous,  and  when  cast  into  a  still  deeper 
state  of  hypnosis  a  third  personality  emerged, 
a  personality  with  characteristics  superior  to 
those  of  both  the  others  and  regarding  both 
with  considerable  disfavor.  To  these  per- 
sonalities Professor  Janet,  who  has  observed 
the  case  more  closely  than  any  other  inves- 
tigator, gave  the  names  of,  respectively, 
Leonie,  Leontine,  and  Leonore.  Leonie,  it 
seems,  knew  nothing  of  the  thoughts  and 
actions  of  Leontine  and  Leonore;  Leontine 
had  knowledge  of  Leonie  but  none  of  Leonore ; 


66  TJie  Riddle  of  Personality 

and  Leonore  was  cognizant  of  all  that  occurred 
in  the  Leonie  and  Leontine  states.  Thus 
there  existed  in  the  single  individual  three 
distinct  personalities  of  which  the  normal, 
wake-a-day  self  was  the  least  gifted.  How 
sharp  the  line  of  demarcation  was  may  clearly 
be  seen  from  an  incident  reported  by  Pro- 
fessor Janet  in  the  Revue  Philosophique  for 
March,  1888,  and  illustrating  at  once  the 
cleavage  between  the  several  selves  and  the 
possibility  of  one  of  the  latent  selves  appear- 
ing spontaneously,  that  is  to  say  without  the 
aid  of  hypnotism. 

"She  had  left  Havre  more  than  two 
months,"  writes  M.  Janet,  "when  I  received 
from  her  a  very  curious  letter.  On  the  first 
page  was  a  short  note,  written  in  a  serious  and 
respectful  style.  She  was  unwell,  she  said, 
worse  on  some  days  than  on  others,  and  she 
signed  her  true  name,  Madame  B.  But  over 
the  page  began  another  letter  in  a  quite  dif- 
ferent style,  and  which  I  may  quote  as  a 
curiosity.  '  My  dear  good  sir,  I  must  tell  you 
that  B.  really,  really  makes  me  suffer  very 
much;  she  cannot  sleep,  she  spits  blood,  she 
hurts  me.  I  am  going  to  demolish  her;  she 
bores  me.  I  am  ill  also.  This  is  from  your 


"Pioneers  of  France  in  New  World"       67 

devoted  Leontine.'  When  Madame  B.  re- 
turned to  Havre  I  naturally  questioned  her 
about  this  singular  missive.  She  remem- 
bered the  first  letter  very  distinctly,  but 
had  not  the  slightest  recollection  of  the 
second.  I  at  first  thought  that  there  must 
have  been  an  attack  of  spontaneous  som- 
nambulism between  the  moment  when  she 
finished  the  first  letter  and  the  moment  when 
she  closed  the  envelope  .  .  .  But  afterwards 
these  unconscious,  spontaneous  letters  be- 
came common,  and  I  was  better  able  to 
study  their  mode  of  production.  I  was  for- 
tunately able  to  watch  Madame  B.  on  one 
occasion  while  she  went  through  this  curious 
performance.  She  was  seated  at  a  table, 
and  held  in  her  left  hand  the  piece  of  knit- 
ting at  which  she  had  been  working.  Her 
face  was  calm,  her  eyes  looked  into  space 
with  a  certain  fixity,  but  she  was  not  cata- 
leptic for  she  was  humming  a  rustic  air;  her 
right  hand  wrote  quickly  and,  as  it  were,  sur- 
reptitiously. I  removed  the  paper  without 
her  noticing  me  and  then  spoke  to  her;  she 
turned  round,  wide  awake,  but  surprised  to 
see  me,  for  in  her  state  of  distraction  she 
had  not  noticed  my  approach.  Of  the  let- 


68  The  Riddle  o]  Personality 

ter  which  she  was  writing  she  knew  nothing 
whatever."  * 

The  phenomenon  of  "automatic  writing" 
will  require  attention  later.  For  the  present 
let  us  continue  our  survey  of  the  hypnotic 
evidence  emphasizing  the  instability  and  divisi- 
bility of  personality.  It  was  soon  discovered 
not  only  that  the  hypnotized  subject  would 
assume,  with  almost  preternatural  dramatic 
fidelity,  any  role  suggested  to  him  by  the 
operator,  but  that  with  the  aid  of  hypnotism 
a  subject  might  be  carried  back  to  any  pre- 
vious period  of  his  life,  losing  all  memory  of 
events  subsequent  to  that  period  but  regain- 
ing in  most  exact  detail  the  early  memories 
long  forgotten  by  the  waking  self.  Here,  it 
was  at  once  suggested,  was  a  therapeutic  hint 
of  first-rate  importance,  for  thus  the  physician 
might  be  able  to  learn  both  the  cause  and  the 
nature  of  some  obscure  malady  baffling  his 
best  powers  of  diagnosis.  It  was  also  found 
that,  although  the  waking  self  is  seemingly 
not  cognizant  of  the  events  of  the  hypnotic 
state,  any  command  given  in  the  hypnotic 
state  will  infallibly  —  unless  it  be  a  command 

1  Translation  by  F.  W.  H.  Myers  in  "  Human  Personality  and  Its 
Survival  of  Bodily  Death,"  Vol.  I,  p.  323. 


"Pioneers  of  France  in  New  World"       69 

repugnant  to  the  moral  sense  of  the  subject  — 
be  obeyed,  even  in  the  waking  state,  no  matter 
what  the  lapse  in  time  between  the  moment 
of  giving  the  command  and  the  moment  set 
for  its  performance.  Thus,  A.  hypnotizes 
B.  and  orders  him  to  go  to  the  public  library, 
exactly  a  week  later,  and  call  for  a  certain 
volume  of  poetry.  B.  is  then  awakened. 
Next  week,  to  the  hour,  impelled  by  some 
uncontrollable  impulse,  he  obeys  A.'s  com- 
mand. 

Here,  however,  we  are  brought  face  to  face 
with  a  fact  fully  demonstrated  in  the  opening 
years  of  Nancy  and  Salpetriere  experimenta- 
tion, but  too  often  overlooked  in  recent  dis- 
cussion of  the  nature  of  personality.  The 
very  persistence  of  a  subconscious  memory  for 
post-hypnotic  suggestions  such  as  that  just 
described,  bears  out  F.  W.  H.  Myers's  theory 
that  personality  is  at  once  extremely  complex 
and  profoundly  unitary.  Indeed,  it  has  been 
definitely  shown  that  the  waking  self  is  not  so 
oblivious  to  conditions  imposed  during  hyp- 
nosis as  circumstances  would  indicate.  Lie- 
beault,  Bernheim,  Liegeois,  Binet  proved  this 
by  experiments  in  the  hypnotic  production 
of  so-called  negative  hallucinations.  For  in- 


70  The  Riddle  of  Personality 

stance,  Elsie  B.,  eighteen  years  old,  a  servant 
girl  of  a  shy,  modest  disposition,  was  hypno- 
tized and  told  that  upon  awakening  she  would 
see  every  one  in  the  room  with  the  single 
exception  of  the  operator.  When  she  was 
aroused  the  latter  did  all  in  his  power  to 
attract  her  attention  —  even  to  making  un- 
pleasant remarks  concerning  her  and  rudely 
handling  her  person  —  but  she  placidly  con- 
versed with  those  about  her  and  gave  no  sign 
of  being  aware  of  his  presence.  He  then 
requested  a  colleague  to  rehypnotize  her  and 
to  suggest  that  she  would  now  see  him.  Re- 
awakened, she  at  once  replied  to  his  saluta- 
tion, but  persisted  in  denying  that  he  had 
been  in  the  room  during  the  preceding  inter- 
val. But  when,  placing  his  hand  on  her 
forehead,  he  commanded:  'You  remember 
everything,  absolutely  everything.  Speak  out! 
What  did  I  say  to  you  ?"  she  blushed  deeply 
and,  although  with  reluctance,  rehearsed  all 
that  had  taken  place,  insisting  meanwhile 
that  she  "must  have  dreamed  it." 

Thus,  we  find  the  hypnotists  of  France,  like 
the  psychical  researchers  of  England,  pointing 
the  way  to  wiser  conceptions  of  the  self;  and, 
as  was  said  above,  we  also  find  them  turning 


"Pioneers  of  France  in  New  World"       71 

the  new  knowledge  to  practical  account  in 
the  betterment  of  the  individual  and  the  race. 
This  is  particularly  true  of  the  Nancy  school, 
which  from  Liebeault's  time  has  recognized 
the  influence  of  suggestion  on  the  bodily 
organism  and  has  steadfastly  employed  hyp- 
notism for  therapeutic  rather  than  experi- 
mental purposes.  Of  course,  at  the  outset 
of  their  labors  the  representatives  of  this 
school  did  not  possess  the  information  since 
gained  of  the  subtle  interactions  between  the 
physical  and  the  psychical  in  the  human 
body;  but  they  saw  clearly  enough  that  in 
some  mysterious  way  suggestions  made  to  a 
hypnotized  patient  set  in  motion  forces  mighty 
to  heal  and  upbuild.  Undeniably,  their  en- 
thusiasm led  them  to  indulge  in  extravagant 
hopes,  and  to  much  futile  effort.  Neverthe- 
less, the  experience  of  years  has  shown  an 
ever-widening  sphere  of  usefulness  for  thera- 
peutic hypnotism.  Among  the  first  discov- 
eries was  the  fact  that  hypnotic  suggestion 
radically  affects  the  power  of  digestion,  nu- 
trition, circulation,  and  the  like;  also  that  it 
could  be  utilized  to  strengthen  the  intellect 
and  the  will  and  thus  be  made  to  serve  edu- 
cational and  morally  corrective  ends.  Lie- 


72  The  Riddle  of  Personality 

beault,  to  cite  a  few  examples,  took  in  hand 
a  group  of  weak-minded  children  and  by 
hypnotism  alone  expanded  their  intelligence 
to  a  really  marvelous  extent.  One  boy,  who 
was  actually  an  idiot  and  deemed  incapable 
of  learning  to  read  or  write,  he  so  stimulated 
that  in  less  than  three  months  he  had  mas- 
tered the  alphabet  and  could  make  simple 
arithmetical  calculations.  In  the  checking 
of  bad  habits  in  children  conspicuous  success 
was  achieved,  more  particularly  by  Dr.  Be- 
rillon,  who  was  perhaps  the  first  systematically 
to  apply  the  hypnotic  method  to  education. 
Similarly,  adults  were  cured  of  alcoholism, 
excessive  smoking,  and  kindred  vices.  This 
last  use  of  hypnotism,  as  is  well  known,  has 
since  secured  wide  application,  and  with  the 
most  encouraging  results.1 

With  the  passage  of  time,  too,  it  was  realized 
that  if,  from  the  therapeutic  standpoint, 
hypnotism  were  unavailing  in  the  treatment 
of  most  physical  ills,  it  might  be  utilized  to 
alleviate  the  pain  accompanying  such  ills, 
and  in  some  cases  to  effect  cures  indirectly; 
and  was  of  positive  curative  value  in  connec- 
tion with  all  maladies  having  a  psychical 

1  See  Appendix  III. 


"Pioneers  of  France  in  New  World"       73 

basis,  unless  these  maladies  had  progressed 
from  the  functional  to  the  organic  stage. 
Just  what  this  means  to  mankind  may  best 
be  shown  by  citing  illustrative  cases,  some 
taken  from  the  earlier  and  some  from  recent 
records  of  French  hypnotic  practice.  Men- 
tion has  been  made  of  Liebeault's  sciatica 
cure  which  was  the  means  of  interesting 
Bernheim  in  hypnotism.  Here,  as  in  similar 
cures  of  neuralgia,  rheumatism,  inflammation, 
etc.,  the  important  element  in  effecting  the 
cure  was  most  likely  the  removal  of  pain  by 
hypnotic  suggestion,  nature  thus  being  en- 
abled to  vindicate  herself  more  readily.  For 
this  reason,  moreover,  the  use  of  hypnotism 
may  well  be  recommended  to  lessen  the 
sufferings  of  those  attacked  by  painful  in- 
curable diseases,  such  as  cancer;  and  by  some 
it  is  even  claimed  that  a  painless  death  may 
be  assured  by  impressing  upon  the  dying  the 
suggestion  that  they  shall  feel  no  pain.  In 
this  connection  it  is  interesting  to  recall  a 
case  in  which  death  itself  would  seem  to  have 
been  met  face  to  face  and  conquered  by 
hypnotism.  I  quote  from  the  abridged  account 
given  by  Myers: 

"From    the    age    of    thirteen    the    patient, 


74  The  Riddle  of  Personality 

Marceline  R.,  had  been  subject  to  a  §  miser- 
able series  of  hysterical  troubles  —  chorea, 
crises,  anaesthesia,  et  cetera.  In  January, 
1886,  the  hysterical  tendency  took  its  most 
serious  form  —  of  insuperable  vomiting,  which 
became  so  bad  that  the  very  sight  of  a  spoon- 
ful of  soup  produced  distressing  spasms. 
Artificial  means  of  feeding  were  tried,  with 
diminishing  success,  and  in  June,  1887,  she 
was  paralytic  and  so  emaciated  that  (in  spite 
of  the  rarity  of  deaths  from  any  form  of 
hysteria)  her  death  from  exhaustion  appeared 
imminent. 

"M.  Janet  [Jules  Janet,  the  brother  of 
Prof.  Pierre  Janet]  was  then  asked  to  hypno- 
tize her.  Almost  at  once  he  succeeded  in  in- 
ducing a  somnambulic  state  in  which  she 
could  eat  readily  and  digest  well.  Her  weight 
increased  rapidly,  and  there  was  no  longer 
any  anxiety  as  to  a  fatal  result.  But  the 
grave  inconvenience  remained  that  she  could 
eat  only  when  hypnotized.  M.  Janet  tried 
to  overcome  this  difficulty;  for  a  time  he  suc- 
ceeded; and  she  left  the  hospital  for  a  few 
months.  She  soon,  however,  returned  in  her 
old  state  of  starvation.  M .  Janet  now  changed 
his  tactics.  Instead  of  trying  to  enable  her 


"Pioneers  oj  France  in  New  World"       75 

to  eat  in  her  first  or  so-called  normal  state, 
he  resolved  to  try  to  enable  her  to  live  com- 
fortably in  her  secondary  state.  In  this  he 
gradually  succeeded,  and  sent  her  out  in 
October,  1888,  established  in  her  new  per- 
sonality. .  .  .  When  he  took  me  to  see  her 
.  .  .  she  had  been  in  the  hypnotic  state  con- 
tinuously for  three  months  and  ten  days, 
during  which  time  she  had  successfully  passed 
a  written  examination  for  the  office  of  hospi- 
tal nurse,  which  she  had  failed  to  pass  in  her 
normal  state."  J 

In  this  instance  we  see  hypnotism  benefit- 
ing the  subject  both  physically  and  mentally. 
Unquestionably,  of  course,  mental  malady 
lay  at  the  root  of  Marceline's  affliction,  and 
it  is  precisely  in  the  treatment  of  such  disor- 
ders that  hypnotism  is  most  successful.  Fre- 
quently, as  recent  research  is  making  very 
evident,  physical  ills  are  but  the  outward 
manifestation  of  some  deep-seated  psychical 
disturbance,  and  whenever  this  is  the  case, 
resort  may  be  had  to  hypnotism  with  con- 
siderable expectation  of  a  cure.  To  illustrate : 
There  was  once  brought  to  Pierre  Janet  a 

1 "  Human  Personality  and  Its  Survival  of  Bodily  Death,"  Vol  I., 
p.  331. 


76  The  Riddle  of  Personality 

young  woman  suffering  from  periodical  and 
prolonged  attacks  of  hysteria,  violent  head- 
aches, and  total  loss  of  the  sense  of  contact 
and  of  the  sense  of  pain.  She  could  not  walk, 
she  felt  no  injury  however  severe.  By  hyp- 
notism alone  this  unfortunate  was  restored 
to  her  family  in  complete  health,  her  hysteria 
and  her  headaches  gone,  her  sensibility  nor- 
mal. Another  patient  was  the  victim  of  a 
persistent  hemorrhage  of  the  eyes,  no  physical 
cause  for  which  could  be  found.  Hypnotism 
checked  this  when  all  else  failed.1 

As  in  the  cure  of  hysteria  so  does  hypnotism 
find  a  wide  field  of  usefulness  in  the  removal 
of  hallucinations  and  those  phobies,  or  irra- 
tional fears,  which  so  often  end  in  the  com- 
mitment of  the  victim  to  an  asylum,  or  in  his 
despairing  death  by  suicide.  Few  people  are 
aware  of  the  extent  and  variety  of  this  form 
of  mental  disease.  There  is,  in  truth,  no 
predicting  the  strange  obsessions  that  may 
invade  the  human  mind,  haunting  it  with 
vampire-like  insistence.  One  man,  terrified 
by  he  knows  not  what,  may  find  himself  un- 
able to  cross  an  open  space;  another  be 
afraid  to  venture  outdoors  alone;  another  to 

1  See  the  Revue  de  Vllypnotisme  for  February,  1892,  p.  251. 


"Pioneers  of  France  in  New  World"       77 

sit  in  a  room  with  closed  doors;  another  may 
feel  that  everyone  he  meets  is  eying  and  criti- 
cising him;  another  asserts  that  he  is  made 
of  glass  and  must  exercise  the  greatest  care 
to  prevent  himself  being  smashed  to  frag- 
ments. Such  fears  would  be  ludicrous  were 
they  not  so  tragic.  Particularly  pathetic  is 
a  case  that  came  to  Professor  Janet's  notice 
some  years  ago.  Madame  P.,  a  dyspeptic, 
had  been  put  on  a  diet  of  toast  and  water,  and, 
rebelling,  was  wont  to  indulge  in  secret  in 
coffee  and  rolls.  These  she  found  did  her 
little  harm,  and  gradually  the  habit  grew 
upon  her  until  finally  she  passed  her  entire 
time  wandering  from  one  Parisian  restaurant 
to  another,  drinking  from  twenty  to  thirty 
cups  of  coffee  a  day  and  consuming  incredible 
quantities  of  rolls.  At  night,  if  she  chanced 
to  wake  and  could  find  no  coffee  and  rolls  in 
the  house,  she  would  pace  her  room  in  feverish 
anxiety  until  the  restaurants  opened  in  the 
morning.  Somewhat  similar  is  a  case  re- 
ported a  few  months  ago  by  the  same  au- 
thority : 

"Here  is  a  young  woman,  Que,  twenty-six 
years  of  age;  in  coming  to  see  us  she  brings 
with  her  a  large  bag,  and  her  pockets  are  filled 


78  The  Riddle  of  Personality 

to  overflowing.  What  is  she  bringing  with 
her  in  coming  to  us  for  a  consultation  ?  It  is 
simply  provisions  for  the  journey.  She  has 
in  her  bag  and  in  her  pockets  several  pieces 
of  bread,  a  few  slices  of  ham,  some  chocolate 
tablets,  and  some  sugar.  One  would  say 
that  she  was  going  to  cross  a  desert,  when  it  is 
simply  a  question  of  crossing  a  few  streets. 
The  provisions  are  indispensable  to  her,  for, 
especially  in  the  open  air  and  in  squares,  it  is 
absolutely  necessary  that  she  should  take 
something  to  strengthen  her.  At  the  end  of 
several  steps  she  feels  dazed,  becomes  dizzy, 
chokes,  and  is  covered  with  cold  sweats.  The 
danger  would  be  great  if  she  did  not  know 
the  remedy.  All  she  needs  is  to  strengthen 
herself.  She  eats  a  piece  of  ham,  puts  a  piece 
of  sugar  in  her  mouth,  and  is  thus  able  to  take 
a  few  more  steps.  But  very  soon  it  all  begins 
again,  and  it  is  only  with  the  aid  of  rolls  and 
chocolates  that  she  is  able  to  cross  a  square. 
One  can,  therefore,  understand  her  miserable 
plight  when  her  provisions  run  short.  She  is 
obliged  at  all  costs,  with  unheard-of  efforts, 
to  cross  the  desert  to  reach  an  oasis  —  that  is, 
a  bakery.  During  this  terrible  journey  she 
gets  along  as  best  she  can.  What  do  unfor- 


"Pioneers  of  France  in  New  World"       79 

tunate  travelers  not  eat  ?  She  may  pick  up  a 
raw  potato,  capture  an  onion,  or  a  few  green 
leaves;  this  hardly  sustains  her,  but  gives  her 
enough  strength  to  reach  a  bakery.  In  gen- 
eral, she  prefers  to  remain  at  home;  that  is 
less  dangerous,  and  so  she  does  nothing  else 
but  prepare  and  eat  food  all  day  long."  1 

For  such  unfortunates  there  is  little  hope 
unless  they  place  themselves  under  the  care 
of  the  skilled  psychopathologist,  the  savant 
accustomed  to  explore  the  vagaries  of  the 
mind  and  able  to  touch  the  hidden  springs  of 
thought  and  feeling  and  action.  Then  and 
only  then  will  the  evil  spirits  of  obsession  be 
exorcised,  and  the  stricken  mind  find  itself 
once  more  in  harmony  with  its  environment. 
Whence  the  secret  of  the  cure?  As  yet  none 
can  say  with  certitude.  But,  as  we  are  now 
about  to  learn,  the  key  to  unlock  this  mystery 
would  at  last  seem  to  be  fairly  in  the  hands 
of  science. 

1  The  Journal  of  Abnormal  Psychology,  Vol.  I,  No.  1,  p.  3. 


CHAPTER  IV 

AMERICAN  EXPLORERS  OF  THE  SUBCONSCIOUS 

AFTER  what  has  been  said  of  the  de- 
velopment of  hypnotism  as  a  thera- 
peutic agency,  it  will  be  evident  that 
its  widest  sphere  of  usefulness  is  in  the  treat- 
ment of  nervous  and  mental  disease.  This 
constitutes  a  fact  of  the  highest  social  sig- 
nificance. Under  the  stress  of  modern  civi- 
lization, and  more  particularly  in  countries 
of  great  economic  activity,  neurasthenia,  hys- 
teria, and  kindred  disorders  have  increased 
with  appalling  rapidity.  Convincing  proof 
of  this  is  furnished  by  the  recently  published 
statistics  of  the  United  States  Census  Bureau 
relating  to  insanity,  that  dread  culmination 
of  nervous  and  mental  breakdown.  These 
we  may  well  contemplate  for  a  moment,  in 
order  to  bring  clearly  before  our  mind's  eye 
the  ravages  of  insanity  and  the  necessity  for 
utilizing  all  the  means  at  our  command  to 
combat  it.  The  figures  to  be  quoted  refer 
usually  to  the  year  1903,  and  in  most  cases 

80 


American  Explorers  of  the  Subconscious    81 

only  to  the  insane  confined  in  public  and 
private  asylums. 

It  appears,  then,  that  as  regards  the  coun- 
tries of  the  European  continent,  the  minimum 
is  found  in  Hungary  with  a  total  of  2,716  in- 
sane, or  14.1  per  100,000  of  population,  and 
the  maximum  is  reached  in  Switzerland  with 
a  total  of  7,434  insane,  or  224.2  per  100,000. 
Germany  has  108,004  insane,  or  191.6;  France, 
69,190,  or  177.5,  and  Italy,  34,802,  or  109.2. 
In  the  British  Empire  the  ratios  are  far 
higher:  Ireland,  22,138,  or  490.9;  Scotland, 
16,658,  or  363.7;  England  and  Wales,  113,964, 
or  340.1,  and  Canada,  12,819,  or  238.6. 
Turning  to  the  United  States  we  find  a  total 
of  no  fewer  than  150,151  insane,  and  while 
this  is  a  ratio  of  only  186.2  per  100,000  of 
population,  there  is  good  reason  to  suspect 
that  insanity  is  increasing  in  the  United  States 
more  rapidly  than  in  any  other  country.  In 
any  event,  it  is  increasing  so  rapidly  as  to 
assume  the  aspect  of  an  urgent  social  problem 
which  must  be  solved  if  the  best  interests  of 
the  nation  are  to  be  conserved. 

Investigation  shows  that  though  the  present 
ratio  of  186.2  per  100,000  refers  only  to  the 
insane  immured  in  asylums,  it  exceeds  by 


82  The  Riddle  of  Personality 

16.2  the  ratio  of  1890  for  all  the  insane  in  the 
United  States,  whether  in  or  out  of  asylums, 
and  exceeds  by  68.0  the  ratio  of  the  same 
year  for  the  asylum  insane.  Doubtless,  as 
has  been  suggested,  the  increase  is  in  part 
attributable  to  kinder  and  more  rational 
methods  of  treatment  whereby  the  lives  of 
the  insane  are  prolonged.  But  this  can  ex- 
plain only  a  small  part  of  the  increase,  when 
the  fact  is  borne  in  mind  that  during  the 
decade  1880-1890  the  population  of  Ameri- 
can asylums  increased  from  40,942  to  74,028, 
and  by  1903  had  leaped  to  150,151,  or  more 
than  double  the  total  for  1890.  Obviously, 
the  census  officials  have  warrant  for  their 
belief  that  in  the  United  States  the  growth  of 
insanity  is  outdistancing  that  of  the  popula- 
tion; and  consequently  there  is  good  ground 
for  the  assertion  that  the  lesser  mental  ills  are 
increasing  with  even  greater  rapidity.  The 
need  of  a  remedy  is  plainly  urged  both  by 
humanitarian  and  economic  considerations. 
The  maintenance  bill  for  American  asylums 
already  amounts  to  more  than  $20,000,000 
annually,  over  ninety  per  cent  of  the  insane 
in  the  United  States  being  wholly  or  partially 
dependent  on  public  support.  And  no  nation 


American  Explorers  of  the  Subconscious    83 

thus  constantly  and  increasingly  weakened 
may  hope  to  retain  political,  industrial,  or 
commercial  headship. 

Under  such  circumstances,  and  in  view  of 
the  enterprising  spirit  of  the  American  people, 
it  would  naturally  be  thought  that  they  would 
be  among  the  first  to  seize,  develop,  and 
utilize  the  results  of  the  new  science  of  psy- 
chopathology.  But  the  contrary  has  been  the 
case,  and  to  such  a  degree  that,  as  concerns 
the  investigation  of  mental  vagaries,  America 
to-day  lags  far  behind  France,  Germany, 
Holland,  Italy,  and  other  countries  of  the  Old 
World.  She  has  no  institution  similar  to  the 
Salpetriere;  the  psychopathic  laboratories  and 
clinics  so  numerous  in  Europe  are  practically 
unknown  within  her  borders.  For  this  con- 
dition of  affairs  there  have  been  several 
causes,  into  which  it  is  not  necessary  to  enter. 
Far  more  important  and  agreeable  is  it  to  be 
able  to  record  that  a  new  era  is  dawning,  and 
that  the  time  seems  near  when,  in  point  both 
of  theoretical  and  practical  achievement  in 
psychopathological  research,  the  United  States 
will  be  outranked  by  no  other  country,  not 
even  by  France.  When  this  time  shall  have 
arrived,  the  names  of  a  little  group  of  pioneers 


84  The  Riddle  of  Personality 

will  be  held  in  grateful  and  enduring  remem- 
brance. 

Foremost  among  these  are  Boris  Sidis  and 
Morton  Prince.  Years  ago  Dr.  Prince,  who 
is  a  Boston  physician  of  international  repu- 
tation as  a  specialist  in  nervous  and  mental 
disease,  became  persuaded  that  the  labors  of 
Charcot,  Liebeault,  Bernheim,  and  Janet  had 
yielded  truths  of  great  moment  to  both  the 
psychologist  and  the  physician,  and  it  is  safe 
to  say  that  no  one  has  done  more  than  he  to 
overcome  the  overt  and  covert  opposition  of 
the  American  scientific  world  to  the  employ- 
ment of  suggestion  as  a  curative  and  experi- 
mental agent.  Recognizing,  as  few  of  his 
colaborers  have  recognized,  the  need  of  tak- 
ing psychotherapeutics  out  of  the  control  of 
"wonder  workers,"  and  of  placing  it  on  a 
strictly  scientific  basis,  he  has  largely  devoted 
his  energies  to  experimentation  and  observa- 
tion, and  (especially  since  the  launching  of 
his  periodical,  the  Journal  of  Abnormal  Psy- 
chology) to  the  task  of  giving  publicity  to  the 
discoveries  of  such  savants  as  Janet  and 
Bernheim,  and  in  this  way  furthering  knowl- 
edge of  the  progress  achieved  and  of  the 
problems  still  baffling  the  psychopathologists. 


American  Explorers  o)  the  Subconscious    85 

But  he  is  also  a  practitioner  and  has  to  his 
credit  many  cures;  notably  the  much-dis- 
cussed "Miss  Beauchamp"  case  of  multiple 
personality. 

The  facts  in  this  case,  as  reported  by  Dr. 
Prince  himself,  are  as  follows:  In  the  spring 
of  1898  there  was  brought  to  him  a  young 
woman  twenty- three  years  old,  a  student  in  a 
New  England  College,  and  a  "neurasthenic" 
of  an  extreme  type,  suffering  from  headaches, 
insomnia,  bodily  pains,  and  persistent  fatigue. 
The  customary  methods  of  treatment  having 
failed  to  afford  relief,  Dr.  Prince  resorted  to 
hypnotism,  and  the  young  woman  whose 
identity  has  been  veiled  by  the  pseudonym 
"Christine  L.  Beauchamp,"  seemed  to  be  on 
the  highroad  to  recovery,  wThen  there  suddenly 
developed  in  her,  in  the  hypnotic  trance,  an 
apparently  secondary  personality.  This  was 
utterly  alien  from  the  normal  Miss  Beau- 
champ,  who  was  dignified  and  reserved, 
whereas  the  newcomer,  if  the  term  be  per- 
missible, manifested  a  gay,  mischievous,  fun- 
loving,  talkative  disposition.  Moreover,  she 
absolutely  denied  identity  with  Miss  Beau- 
champ,  while  claiming  and  revealing  knowl- 
edge of  her  most  secret  thoughts  and  feelings. 


86  The  Riddle  o)  Personality 

At  first  Dr.  Prince  suspected  deception, 
but,  try  as  he  might,  he  could  not  trap  the  new 
personality  into  statements  that  would  con- 
firm this  suspicion.  Finally,  a  day  came  when 
"Sally,"  as  the  secondary  being  called  herself, 
succeeded  in  asserting  her  individuality  while 
Miss  Beauchamp  was  in  the  waking,  not  the 
hypnotic  state;  and  thereafter  became  not 
merely  a  "subconscious"  but  also  an  "alter- 
nating" personality,  replacing  the  primary 
personality  at  frequent  intervals  and  during 
these  intervals  so  behaving  as  to  cause  her 
other  self  much  trouble,  embarrassment,  and 
even  suffering.  Soon  the  conviction  took 
root  in  Miss  Beauchamp's  mind  that  she  was 
literally  possessed  of  a  demon.  The  periods 
when  "Sally"  was  in  control  were  described 
by  Miss  Beauchamp  as  trances ;  but  sometimes 
in  her  waking  moments  "Sally"  impelled  her 
to  do  much  against  her  will. 

The  two  personalities  were,  in  fact,  of  radi- 
cally different  traits  and  inclinations.  Miss 
Beauchamp,  who  was  in  straitened  circum- 
stances financially,  was  by  nature  cautious 
and  thrifty.  "Sally"  frittered  away  her  care- 
fully hoarded  earnings.  Miss  Beauchamp  was 
deeply  religious  and  guarded  in  her  actions. 


American  Explorers  of  the  Subconscious    87 

" Sally"  was  irreligious,  coquettish,  and  ad- 
dicted to  smoking  cigarettes.  Miss  Beau- 
champ  wearied  easily.  "Sally"  never  felt 
tired,  and  would  frequently  take  her  other 
self,  all  unconsciously,  on  long  walks,  allowing 
Miss  Beauchamp  to  awake  from  the  trance 
state  in  some  distant  suburb,  penniless  and 
worn  out.  For  a  time,  Dr.  Prince  gave  her 
some  relief  by  hypnotizing  "Sally"  into 
quiescence,  but  before  long  "Sally"  became 
unmanageable  even  with  the  aid  of  hypnotism. 
She  had  her  good  qualities,  however.  Once, 
according  to  Dr.  Prince,  when  Miss  Beau- 
champ  despairingly  gave  up  the  struggle  and 
essayed  suicide  by  gas,  "Sally"  assumed  con- 
trol, turned  off  the  gas,  and  opened  the  win- 
dow. But  the  situation  seemed  hopeless,  and 
Miss  Beauchamp  marked  for  the  insane 
asylum. 

Then,  suddenly  and  spontaneously,  a  new 
personality  appeared,  a  personality  remem- 
bering nothing  that  had  occurred  in  Miss 
Beauchamp's  life  since  1893,  but  with  a  full 
knowledge  of  the  events  in  her  earlier  career. 
Unlike  "Sally,"  this  personality  was  well 
developed  mentally,  and  unlike  Miss  Beau- 
champ  was  strong-willed,  stubborn,  and  some- 


88  The  Riddle  of  Personality 

what  deceitful.  Making  inquiry,  Dr.  Prince 
learned  that  in  1893  Miss  Beauchamp  had 
experienced  a  severe  shock,  and  that  her  ills 
had  dated  from  that  time.  At  once  the 
thought  occurred  to  him:  Is  this  new  per- 
sonality the  real  Miss  Beauchamp,  and  is  the 
Miss  Beauchamp  I  have  known,  like  "Sally" 
herself,  nothing  more  than  a  secondary  per- 
sonality? But  before  he  could  answer  this 
inevitable  query  a  new  phase  developed, 
"Sally"  and  the  latest  personality  entering 
upon  a  life-and-death  struggle  for  possession 
of  Miss  Beauchamp's  bodily  faculties. 

Dr.  Prince  realized  that  he  must  act,  and 
act  quickly.  But  the  problem  was  how  to 
act.  Only  one  personality  could  be  left  in 
"control,"  and  which  should  it  be?  Which, 
in  other  words,  was  the  real  Miss  Beauchamp  ? 
What  if  none  of  the  three  were  the  real  Miss 
Beauchamp?  Such  were  the  questions  that 
hurled  themselves  at  the  perplexed  physician. 
Then,  quite  unexpectedly,  he  made  the  dis- 
covery that,  under  hypnotism,  the  primary 
personality  and  the  latest  personality  became 
identical.  Here,  it  seemed  to  him,  was  the 
correct  solution  —  a  fusion  of  both  personali- 
ties into  a  single,  well-rounded  whole.  But, 


American  Explorers  of  the  Subconscious    89 

brought  out  of  the  hypnotic  state,  disintegra- 
tion immediately  took  place,  either  the  pri- 
mary or  the  latest  personality  "controlling"  the 
unhappy  organism.  Once  there  was  no  dis- 
integration, but  then  the  patient  acted  as  one 
demented.  Not  until  many  months  later, 
and  full  seven  years  from  the  time  the  case 
had  first  come  under  his  observation,  did  Dr. 
Prince  find  that  he  had  actually  hit  upon  the 
proper  method  of  procedure,  but  had  been 
baffled  by  the  cunning  of  "Sally,"  who  had 
compelled  the  disintegration  and  the  dementia 
because  she  feared  that,  fusion  accomplished, 
her  own  existence  would  be  terminated.  Then 
it  did  indeed  come  to  an  end,  and  ever  since 
Miss  Beauchamp,  a  normal,  healthy  woman, 
has  led  a  life  of  tranquil  happiness.1 

Equally  impressive,  as  testifying  to  the 
value  to  the  new  methods  of  treating  mental 
alienation,  is  the  work  of  Boris  Sidis,  the 
Janet  of  the  United  States.  And  first  a  few 
words  as  to  Dr.  Sidis's  career,  in  itself  most 
interesting.  Of  Russian  birth,  he  came  to 
this  country  when  still  extremely  young, 
and  entered  Harvard.  It  was  not  long  be- 

1  For  the  detailed  account  of  this  strange  tale  from  real  life,  con- 
sult Dr.  Prince's  "  The  Dissociation  of  a  Personality." 


90  The  Riddle  of  Personality 

fore  his  industry,  his  alertness,  and,  above 
all,  his  originality,  attracted  the  attention  of 
Professor  James,  who  conceived  a  hearty 
admiration  for  the  young  Russian  and  prophe- 
sied that  he  would  be  heard  from  after  leaving 
Harvard.  This  prophecy  was  speedily  ful- 
filled with  the  publication  of  his  "The  Psy- 
chology of  Suggestion,"  which  made  it 
evident  that  a  remarkably  gifted  investigator 
and  thinker  had  entered  the  scientific  field. 
About  this  time,  too,  opportunity  knocked  at 
Dr.  Sidis's  door  in  most  unexpected  fashion. 
Acting  on  the  recommendation  of  Dr.  Carlos 
F.  MacDonald,  president  of  the  State  Lunacy 
Commission,  the  New  York  Legislature  had 
created  a  novel  department  of  governmental 
activity,  a  "pathological  institute."  This  was 
intended  to  be,  so  to  speak,  an  educational 
annex  to  the  State  hospital  system,  its  chief 
legal  raison  d'etre  being  that  it  might  "pro- 
vide instruction  in  brain  pathology  and  other 
subjects  for  the  medical  officers  of  the  State 
hospitals."  But,  as  luck  would  have  it,  a 
progressive  and  liberal-minded  physician,  Dr. 
Ira  van  Gieson,  was  appointed  director,  and 
the  institute  speedily  developed  into  some- 
thing more  than  a  mere  hospital  appanage. 


American  Explorers  of  the  Subconscious    91 

Dr.  van  Gieson,  who  deserves  to  be  ranked 
among  American  pathfinders  of  the  subcon- 
scious, saw  clearly  that  as  then  constituted 
psychiatry  (the  study  of  insanity)  was  in  a 
dismal  slough  of  despond  and  could  make 
little  progress  until  the  problems  of  insanity 
were  approached  from  other  than  the  purely 
medical  standpoint.  To  this  end  he  gathered 
about  him  a  staff  of  specialists  in  allied  sci- 
ences, and  as  associate  in  psychology  and 
psychopathology  he  selected  Dr.  Sidis.  It 
was  in  1896  that  the  institute  began  work  in 
earnest,  and  by  1899  Dr.  van  Gieson  could 
report  to  the  State  Commission  that  "much 
material  has  been  accumulated  by  the  director 
and  his  associates,  and  many  scientific  gen- 
eralizations of  theoretical  and  practical  im- 
portance have  been  worked  out."  Among 
these  generalizations  was  Dr.  Sidis's  now 
famous  "law  of  dissociation"  which  has 
thrown  a  flood  of  light  on  the  mechanism 
both  of  insanity  and  of  suggestion,  and  which 
we  shall  presently  survey  in  brief. 

But  if  Dr.  van  Gieson  might  justly  feel 
proud  of  the  results  obtained  in  so  short  a 
time,  it  was  none  the  less  certain  that  the 
commission  was  dissatisfied  with  his  conduct 


92  The  Riddle  o)  Personality 

of  the  institute.  Criticism  hinged  on  the  fact 
that  he  was  subordinating  the  educational 
to  the  experimental  phase,  and  he  was  urged 
to  pay  more  attention  to  the  work  of  instruct- 
ing the  asylum  physicians.  In  vain  he  pro- 
tested that  "the  main  function  of  the  institute 
is  the  investigation  of  the  principles  and  laws 
of  abnormal  mental  life."  He  was  reminded 
that  the  act  creating  the  institute  contem- 
plated other  objects.  A  bitter  controversy 
developed,  and  in  the  end  he  and  his  asso- 
ciates were  swept  from  office  with  their  work 
unfinished,  and  the  institute  was  reorganized 
on  a  "practical"  basis.  For  a  time  the  little 
band  of  investigators  found  refuge  in  a  pri- 
vate laboratory,  but  ere  long  lack  of  funds 
caused  their  dispersal,  Dr.  Sidis  removing  to 
Brookline,  Mass.,  where  he  has  since  con- 
tinued his  therapeutic  and  experimental  work, 
now  independently,  now  in  cooperation  with 
Dr.  Prince  and  others,  to  no  small  extent  cen- 
tering his  efforts  on  the  elaboration  of  the  law 
of  dissociation. 

This  law  or  principle  is  connected  with  a 
novel  conception  in  biology  -  -  the  much- 
debated  theory  of  neuron  motility,  itself  a 
product  of  recent  investigation.  According  to 


American  Explorers  oj  the  Subconscious    93 

it  the  neuron  (that  is  to  say,  the  nerve  cell  and 
its  prolongations)  is  held  to  be  an  anatomical 
unity,  possessing  the  power  of  independent 
movement  and  securing  concerted  functional 
activity  with  other  neurons  by  means  of  a 
connection  simply  of  contact.  Having  regard 
to  this  theory  —  and  appreciating  the  ease  with 
which,  under  such  conditions,  contact  might  be 
broken,  neuron  energy  interfered  with,  and 
the  detached  neurons  either  be  utterly  de- 
stroyed or  form  themselves  into  new  clusters 
-it  seemed  possible  to  Dr.  Sidis  to  view 
mental  disorders  as  the  accompanying  psychi- 
cal manifestations  of  neuron  disaggregation. 
For  example,  the  individual,  A,  suffers  from 
a  severe  illness,  a  blow,  a  mental  shock,  and 
subsequently  exhibits,  it  may  be  loss  of 
memory,  it  may  be  a  proneness  to  hallucina- 
tions, it  may  be  even  a  completely  changed 
personality.  Dr.  Sidis  would  explain  all  such 
phenomena  on  the  ground  that  the  initial 
trouble,  whatever  its  nature,  whether  physical 
or  psychical,  had  brought  about  a  neuron 
disturbance  with  accompanying  "dissociation" 
of  consciousness.  More  than  this,  he  would 
apply  the  law  of  dissociation  to  explain  sundry 
physical  disorders  (as  certain  headaches, 


94  The  Riddle  o]  Personality 

hystero-epilepsy,  etc.)  on  the  assumption  that 
in  such  cases  the  physical  phenomena,  the 
headaches,  the  fits,  were  the  external  indica- 
tions of  a  deep-seated  psychical  malady.  In 
either  instance  a  cure  is  deemed  possible, 
once  it  is  ascertained  that  the  dissociation 
has  not  proceeded  so  far  as  to  involve  destruc- 
tion of  the  nerve  cell.  At  first,  of  course,  the 
law  of  dissociation  was  utilized  by  Dr.  Sidis 
as  a  working  hypothesis  merely;  to-day,  how- 
ever, it  has  been,  in  his  opinion  and  in  the 
opinion  of  many  other  investigators,  so  firmly 
established  that  its  validity  is  no  longer  de- 
pendent on  the  validity  of  the  neuron  theory, 
which,  I  may  add,  is  still  regarded  by  most 
scientists  as  lacking  adequate  demonstration. 
The  operation  and  significance  of  this  law 
may  be  made  plain  by  a  review  of  a  few  of 
the  human  problems  that  have  been  worked 
out  by  Dr.  Sidis;  problems,  moreover,  of 
direct  bearing  on  our  present  inquiry  into  the 
nature  of  human  personality.  Let  us  begin 
with  the  case  of  D.  F.,  a  young  girl  treated 
by  Dr.  Sidis  in  cooperation  with  another 
really  scientific  American  psychopathologist, 
Dr.  William  A.  White,  now  superintendent  of 
the  Government  hospital  for  the  insane  at 


American  Explorers  of  the  Subconscious    95 

Washington,  but  then  (1897)  connected  with 
the  State  hospital  at  Binghamton,  N.  Y.  It 
was  there  that  D.  F.  came  under  observation, 
having  been  committed  as  insane  when  only 
thirteen  years  of  age.  Until  this  time,  it 
appears,  nothing  abnormal  had  been  noticed 
in  her  conduct,  and  the  circumstances  attend- 
ing the  onset  of  the  attack  were  such  that  Drs. 
Sidis  and  White  immediately  suspected  that 
she  might  be  a  victim  not  of  insanity  but  dis- 
sociation. To  determine  the  verity  of  their 
suspicion  they  subjected  her  to  some  curious 
tests.  Psychopathological  examination  had  re- 
vealed the  fact  that  there  was  a  decided  con- 
traction of  her  field  of  vision,  and  that  many 
parts  of  her  body  were  insensible  to  pain  or 
sensation  of  any  kind.  With  this  knowledge, 
objects  were  introduced  midway  between  her 
field  and  the  normal  field  of  vision  and  she 
was  asked  to  guess  their  nature;  the  non- 
sensitive  parts  were  pricked  with  a  pin  and 
she  was  asked  to  guess  the  number  of  pricks. 
Almost  invariably  her  guess  was  correct,  and 
this  satisfied  the  investigators  that  she  had 
a  subconscious  perception  of  the  test  stimuli. 
Wliat  this  meant  was  that  they  had  before 
them  a  clear  case  of  dissociation,  and  that 


96  The  Riddle  of  Personality 

dissociation  had  not  progressed  from  the 
functional  to  the  fatal  organic  stage.  Hyp- 
notic experiments  confirmed  this  view,  and 
the  attempt  was  now  made  to  raise  the  fugi- 
tive, subconscious  perceptions  above  the 
threshold  of  consciousness,  and  thus  obtain 
a  complete  reassociation.  D.  F.  was  hyp- 
notized and  the  suggestion  was  made  to  her 
that  she  should  pass  from  the  hypnotic  into  a 
state  of  normal  sleep.  While  in  this  state  of 
normal  sleep  pencil  and  paper  were  given  her 
and  she  wrote,  from  Dr.  Sidis's  dictation,  a 
letter  in  which  she  informed  her  mother  that 
she  was  determined  "to  try  not  to  be  sick 
any  more."  As  the  technical  report  on  her 
case  says: 

"It  was  the  awakening  of  the  patient's 
spontaneous  energy  coming  from  the  depths 
of  her  own  being.  That  this  energy  was  really 
awakened  and  the  synthesis  voluntarily  formed 
by  the  spontaneous  activity  of  the  patient  her- 
self, are  well  shown  in  the  interesting  and 
highly  suggestive  lines  which  she  herself 
volunteered  after  the  letter  was  finished,  as  if 
to  emphasize  distinctly  that  what  she  had 
just  written  by  dictation  was  not  a  matter  of  a 
passively  accepted  suggestion,  but  of  a  spon- 


American  Explorers  of  the  Subconscious      97 

taneous,  voluntary,  active,  energetic  resolu- 
tion. The  resolution  was  especially  well  seen 
in  the  -way  she  wrote  it.  The  pencil  was 
firmly  grasped  in  the  hand,  and  she  wrote 
quickly  and  with  determination  the  following 
sentence:  '/  mean  what  I  have  just  written,' 
and  signed  her  name."1 

Later  she  was  again  hypnotized,  and  in 
order  to  re-enforce  her  resolution  and  complete 
the  synthesis  of  the  dissociated  states  it  was 
suggested  to  her  that  her  eyesight  would  be 
"as  good  as  anyone's,"  that  sensation  would 
be  restored  to  her,  and  that  she  would  recol- 
lect everything  that  had  transpired  in  the 
natural  sleep.  Astounding  as  it  may  seem, 
the  results  suggested  actually  followed.  "The 
field  of  vision,"  we  read,  "taken  immediately 
after  attempts  to  run  the  dissociated  systems 
into  one,  was  markedly  enlarged.  The  field 
of  vision  kept  on  expanding."  Similarly,  the 
non-sensitive  parts  recovered  sensation,  and 
she  regained  a  sound  memory.  But  what  was 
most  important  of  all,  D.  F.  became  what  she 
had  originally  been  —  a  quiet,  modest,  normal 
girl,  rescued  from  the  asylum  to  develop  into  a 
useful  member  of  society.  "Since  the  dis- 

1  "Psychopathological  Researches."    By  Boris  Sidis,  p.  93. 


98  The  Riddle  of  Personality 

charge  from  the  hospital  she  had  had  no  re- 
turn of  any  of  the  symptoms  which  led  to  her 
committal.  The  patient's  mental  condition 
remains  normal,  and  there  has  been  no  recur- 
rence for  the  period  of  five  years  of  the  con- 
traction of  the  field  of  vision."1 

In  this  case  the  immediate  cause  of  dissocia- 
tion does  not  seem  to  have  been  ascertained, 
but  it  was  speedily  learned  in  another,  and 
in  its  way  more  difficult,  case  recorded  by 
Dr.  Sidis.  J.  F.,  a  Russian  Jew,  intelligent, 
of  good  physique  and  temperate  habits,  had 
occasion  in  1900  to  consult  a  physician  for 
some  slight  abdominal  trouble,  and  was  jok- 
ingly told  that  he  had  "lumps"  in  his  stomach. 
The  temporary  suggestibility  of  the  patient 
was  such  that  this  statement  formed  the 
nucleus  of  a  highly  systematized  delusion. 
Into  his  mind  came  the  idea  that  a  vast 
quantity  of  waste  materials  had  accumulated 
in  his  intestines  in  the  shape  of  lumps,  and 
presently  he  imagined  that  the  lumps  were 
constantly  shifting  in  position,  passing  and 
repassing  between  different  organs  of  his 
body.  Soon  more  bizarre  conceptions  took 
possession  of  him.  He  "believed  he  had 

1  "Psychopathological  Researches."    By  Boris  Sidis,  p.  102. 


American  Explorers  of  the  Subconscious      99 

worms  in  his  intestines;  it  was  these  worms 
working  on  the  great  amount  of  lumps  that 
broke  the  big  hard  lumps  and  ate  them;  at 
the  same  time,  being  stupid  and  careless,  they 
sprinkled  tiny  lumps  all  about  them.  In 
this  process  of  sprinkling,  due  to  the  careless 
mode  of  'feasting/  the  worms  themselves  be- 
came besprinkled  with  tiny  lumps  and  were 
very  uncomfortable,  but  they  could  not  free 
themselves  from  the  lumps  which  stuck  fast 
to  their  slimy,  sticky  bodies.  .  .  .  Fortunately 
for  himself  as  well  as  for  the  worms,  three 
agencies  came  to  the  rescue  of  this  intolerable 
state  of  affairs  —  the  spleen,  the  soul,  and  the 
veins.  .  .  .  The  spleen  and  the  soul  were  the 
two  active  agents  in  this  purifying  process. 
The  soul  was  the  scavenger  and  the  spleen 
the  director.  ...  A  whole  system  of  signs  was 
established  between  .  .  .  the  soul  and  the 
spleen,  signs  which  the  patient  could  hear 
distinctly.  He  would  hear  the  spleen  grunt 
in  reply  to  the  signals  given  to  it  in  a  sort  of 
deaf  and  mute  fashion  by  the  ever-working, 
never- tiring  soul.  The  spleen  would  grunt 
when  the  soul  worked  well,  but  its  grunt  did 
not  resemble  that  of  man,"1  and  so  on,  ad 

1  "Psychopathological  Researches."    By  Boris  Sidis,  pp.  160-163. 


100  The  Riddle  of  Personality 

infinitum.  Manifestly,  here  was  a  man  who 
ordinarily  would  have  ended  his  days  in  the 
madhouse.  And,  in  fact,  he  proved  a  most 
troublesome  patient,  his  delusions  persisting 
even  when  he  was  put  into  deep  hypnosis. 
But  Dr.  Sidis  did  not  despair,  and  by  a  long 
course  of  hypnotic  treatment  gradually  suc- 
ceeded in  suggesting  the  imaginary  lumps 
away,  through  impressing  on  the  patient's 
subconsciousness  the  idea  that  the  delusion 
was  a  past  experience. 

Under  hypnosis,  it  is  worth  noting,  J.  F. 
manifested  a  personality  quite  distinct  from 
that  of  his  waking  self.  In  this  respect  his 
case  was  similar  to  that  of  another  of  Dr. 
Sidis's  patients,  Mr.  R.,  a  business  man  of 
phlegmatic  temperament  who  was  unaccount- 
ably afflicted  by  a  trembling  of  the  hands  so 
pronounced  as  to  prevent  his  carrying  a  glass 
of  water  to  his  mouth.  For  eight  years  this 
malady  had  slowly  grown  worse,  until  he 
finally  consulted  Dr.  Sidis  in  much  the  spirit 
of  the  drowning  man  who  clutches  at  the 
proverbial  straw.  Hypnotizing  him,  Dr.  Sidis 
discovered  that  the  Mr.  R.  of  the  hypnotic 
state  was  a  vastly  different  person  from  the 
Mr.  R.  of  every-day  life.  "We  no  longer  have 


American  Explorers  of  the  Subconscious    101 

before  us  a  business  man  of  fifty.  We  see 
before  us  a  childlike  soul,  displaying  a  most 
intense  human  emotion.  .  .  .  All  business  is 
completely  forgotten;  not  a  mention  is  made 
of  money."1  No  time  was  lost  in  demanding 
of  the  hypnotized  Mr.  R. :  "Can  you  tell  us 
the  exact  conditions  and  the  time  when  you 
first  perceived  the  tremor  in  your  hands?" 
"Yes;  it  was  on  the  day  my  wife  died."  "Do 
you  have  any  dreams?"  'Yes."  "AVhat 
are  they?"  And  now  followed  a  long  series 
of  dreams,  all  relating  to  the  dead  wife  and 
revealing  the  existence  of  a  constant  sub- 
conscious yearning  and  sorrow  for  the  lost 
companion  of  his  earlier  years.  Here,  clearly, 
was  a  secondary  self  of  more  attractive 
characteristics  than  the  waking  self  of  the 
cold,  calculating  man  of  affairs .  But  it  was 
a  dissociated  self,  influencing  adversely  the 
physical  well-being  of  the  waking  self.  Dr. 
Sidis's  duty  was  plain,  and  the  means  of  per- 
forming it  in  his  power.  A  few  treatments 
and  Mr.  R.'s  hands  had  ceased  to  tremble. 
More  impressive  than  any  of  the  foregoing, 
and  indeed  unique  in  the  annals  of  psycho- 

1  Multiple  Personality."    By  Boris  Sidis  and  Simon  P.  Goodhart, 
p.  318. 


102  The  Riddle  of  Personality 

pathology,  is  the  strange  case  of  the  Rev. 
Thomas  C.  Hanna.  Like  the  case  of  Miss 
Christine  L.  Beauchamp,  this  has  already 
received  considerable  publicity,  but  it  is  neces- 
sary that  at  least  an  outline  of  it  be  given 
here,  while  readers  desiring  the  details  may 
consult  Dr.  Sidis's  "Multiple  Personality." 
To  be  brief,  Mr.  Hanna,  in  the  spring  of  1897, 
was  plunged  into  a  state  of  complete  amnesia 
as  the  result  of  a  fall  from  a  carriage.  He 
lost  all  sense  of  identity,  forgot  the  events  of 
his  past  life,  had  no  sign  of  recognition  for 
relatives  and  friends.  More,  he  had  to  be 
taught  to  read,  to  write,  even  to  talk  and  walk 
and  eat.  It  was  at  first  thought  that  his  future 
home  would  have  to  be  in  an  asylum,  but  as 
time  progressed  and  he  displayed  the  posses- 
sion of  a  keen,  vigorous,  intelligent  personality, 
his  case  was  referred  to  Drs.  Sidis  and  Good- 
hart  in  the  hope  that  they  might  succeed  in 
recovering  the  lost  contents  of  his  conscious- 
ness. Their  immediate  concern  was  to  learn 
whether  any  memory  of  events  antedating 
the  accident  persisted  in  a  subconscious,  dis- 
sociated state.  As  has  been  seen,  resort  is 
usually  had  to  hypnotism  for  this  purpose, 
but  it  was  found  impossible  to  hypnotize  Mr. 


American  Explorers  of  the  Subconsdow    103 

Hanna.  However,  the  employment  of  a 
method  known  as  hypnoidization  finally 
yielded  results. 

We  must  dwell  for  a  moment  on  hypnoidi- 
zation since  it  involves  one  of  the  most  re- 
markable discoveries  made  by  the  modern 
students  of  the  self.  It  is  based  on  the  theory 
that  if  the  waking  consciousness  be  subjected 
to  a  monotonous  stimulus  the  contents  of  the 
subconsciousness  will  rise  above  the  threshold. 
It  is  applied  in  different  ways.  Sometimes 
the  patient  is  simply  requested  to  close  his 
eyes,  keep  as  quiet  as  possible,  and  then  re- 
late the  thoughts  that  flit  through  his  mind. 
Sometimes  he  is  given  pencil  and  paper  and 
asked  to  set  down  in  writing  whatever  thoughts 
may  occur  to  him  while  listening  to  another 
person  reading,  or  playing  on  the  piano. 
Childish  as  this  process  sounds,  it  often  brings 
to  the  surface  ideas  submerged  beneath  the 
threshold  of  consciousness  and  essential  to  the 
knowledge  and  treatment  of  the  case.1 

So  far  as  concerns  Mr.  Hanna,  hypnoidi- 
zation convinced  Drs.  Sidis  and  Goodhart 
that  the  lost  memories  survived,  and  the 
effort  was  now  made  to  bring  them  perma- 

1  See  Appendix  IV. 


104  The  Riddle  of  Personality 

nently  into  the  field  of  waking  consciousness. 
The  experiment  was  tried  of  conducting  the 
patient  to  theaters,  saloons,  and  other  places 
of  entertainment  to  which,  in  his  normal  state, 
he  would  not  think  of  resorting.  It  was 
hoped  that  there  might  result  a  reintegrating, 
reassociating  shock,  and  this  hope  was  actu- 
ally realized.  One  night  there  developed  a 
spontaneous  but  brief  recurrence  of  the  orig- 
inal personality.  The  experimenters  perse- 
vered, and  soon  witnessed  the  phenomenon 
of  alternating  personality.  One  moment  the 
patient  would  be  the  Mr.  Hanna  of  old,  the 
next  the  secondary  Mr.  Hanna.  He  was 
ceaselessly  urged  to  try  to  remember  in  each 
personality,  the  thoughts,  feelings,  actions  of 
the  other.  Memory  was  to  be  the  bridge 
across  the  chasm  separating  the  two  person- 
alities. Ultimately,  complete  fusion  was 
effected  and  the  clergyman  restored  to  his 
family  a  normal,  healthy  man.  This  was 
some  years  ago,  and  as  up  to  the  present 
(September,  1907)  there  has  been  no  relapse, 
a  lasting  cure  has  apparently  been  obtained. 
What  results  from  the  scrutiny  of  such 
cases  as  these  ?  For  one  thing,  or  so  it  seems 
to  me,  the  knowledge  that  an  unfailing  in- 


American  Explorers  of  the  Subconscious    105 

strument  is  available  to  readjust  the  mental 
equilibrium  of  the  individual  and  the  race 
tottering  under  the  strain  and  hurry  of  mod- 
ern conditions  of  life.  The  psychopatholo- 
gists,  it  is  true,  confess  that  they  are  helpless 
in  the  presence  of  actual  insanity;  but  actual 
insanity  is  often  preceded  by  stages  in  which 
it  is  possible  to  avert  the  impending  doom. 
Moreover,  other  nervous  and  mental  ills,  not 
necessarily  culminating  in  insanity,  lend  them- 
selves readily  to  treatment  by  the  skilled 
psychopathologist,  while  obstinately  refusing 
to  yield  to  the  methods  of  the  orthodox 
schools.  All  of  which  should  carry  home  to 
the  unprejudiced  observer  the  great  desira- 
bility of  furthering  by  every  means  possible 
the  investigations  already  so  rich  in  results 
despite  the  heavy  handicaps  imposed  on  the 
explorers.  Europe  has  its  Salpetriere  and  its 
psychopathic  laboratories.  The  United  States, 
with  its  150,000  lunatics,  can  no  longer  afford 
to  ignore  the  example  of  Europe. 

And  now  that  we  have  gained,  in  large 
measure,  thanks  to  the  labors  of  such  men  as 
Liebeault  and  Bernheim  and  Janet  and  Sidis, 
clearer  insight  into  the  nature  and  faculties 
of  personality,  one  monumental  question  re- 


106  The  Riddle  of  Personality 

mains  —  the  question  of  the  survival  of  per- 
sonality after  the  death  of  the  body.  As  my 
readers  are  aware,  a  systematized  inquiry  has 
been  set  on  foot  to  determine  the  validity  of 
the  traditional  belief  that  personality  persists 
beyond  the  grave,  and  we  must  now  turn  to 
examine  the  progress  of  this  inquiry,  not  only 
on  account  of  its  inherent  interest  and  im- 
portance, but  because  it  has  been  the  means 
of  bringing  to  light  many  informing  facts 
overlooked  by  the  psychopathologists,  whose 
concern  has  been  with  the  obviously  abnor- 
mal rather  than  the  seemingly  supernormal 
in  human  life. 


CHAPTER  V 

THE  EVIDENCE  FOR  SURVIVAL 

IN  the  opening  chapter  it  was  shown  that 
the  phenomena  alleged  to  have  eviden- 
tial value  in  support  of  the  belief  that 
human  personality  survives  the  death  of  the 
body  fall  into  two  great  classes.  The  first 
comprises  such  "physical"  manifestations  as 
rappings,  apports,  and  the  so-called  materiali- 
zation of  spirit  forms ;  the  second  includes  the 
"psychical"  phenomena  of  auditions,  appari- 
tions, crystal  visions,  automatic  writing,  and 
automatic  speaking.  The  phenomena  of  both 
classes  have  been  subjected  to  rigid  scrutiny 
by  the  Society  for  Psychical  Research.  As 
regards  the  first  the  conclusion  has  been 
reached  that,  save  when  the  public  interests 
require  protection,  it  is  practically  a  waste  of 
time  and  energy  to  investigate  the  perform- 
ances of  those  who  claim  thus  concretely  to 
demonstrate  interworld  communication.  This 
conclusion  is  based  on  several  considerations, 

107 


108  The  Riddle  of  Personality 

not  the  least  important  of  which  is  the  fact 
that  the  "controls"  of  the  "physical"  me- 
diums have  not  once  met  the  conditions  of 
tests  of  such  a  character  as  to  dispense  with 
the  necessity  for  close  and  continuous  obser- 
vation by  the  experimenters. 

"The  Spiritualist,"  wrote  Sir  William 
Crookes,  a  generation  ago,  "tells  of  rooms 
and  houses  being  shaken  even  to  injury  by 
superhuman  power.  The  man  of  science 
merely  asks  for  a  pendulum  to  be  set  vibrat- 
ing when  it  is  in  a  glass  case  and  supported 
on  solid  masonry. 

:<The  Spiritualist  tells  of  heavy  articles  of 
furniture  moving  from  one  room  to  another 
without  human  agency.  But  the  man  of 
science  has  made  instruments  which  will 
divide  an  inch  into  a  million  parts,  and  he  is 
justified  in  doubting  the  accuracy  of  the 
former  observations  if  the  same  force  is 
powerless  to  move  the  index  of  his  instrument 
one  poor  degree. 

"The  Spiritualist  tells  of  flowers  with  the 
fresh  dew  on  them,  of  fruit,  and  living  ob- 
jects, being  carried  through  closed  windows 
and  even  solid  brick  walls.  The  scientific 
investigator  naturally  asks  that  an  additional 


The  Evidence  for  Survival  109 

weight  (if  it  be  only  the  thousandth  part  of  a 
grain)  be  deposited  on  one  pan  of  his  balance, 
when  the  case  is  locked.  And  the  chemist 
asks  for  the  thousandth  of  a  grain  of  arsenic 
to  be  carried  through  the  sides  of  a  glass  tube 
in  which  pure  water  is  hermetically  sealed."1 
This  indictment  is  as  valid  to-day  as  the 
day  it  was  drawn,  and  until  some  such  re- 
quirement be  fulfilled  the  "physical"  medi- 
ums must  not  complain  if  the  thoughtful 
deem  their  feats  suspect.  Experience  has 
demonstrated  that  even  the  best  trained  ob- 
servers fail  to  perceive  all  that  transpires  in 
the  seance  room;  and  that,  consequently,  the 
quick-witted  medium  of  fraudulent  tendencies 
has  ample  opportunity  to  effect  his  triumphs 
by  trick  and  device.  Conclusive  proof  of  this 
was  afforded  by  the  late  S.  J.  Davey,  a  member 
of  the  Society  for  Psychical  Research,  who, 
after  a  little  practice,  succeeded  in  duplicat- 
ing the  most  sensational  performances  of  the 
"slate-writing"  medium  Eglinton.  So  suc- 
cessful was  he  that  the  English  spiritists  de- 
nounced him  as  a  renegade  medium.  But  he 
frankly  operated  throughout  on  the  conjurer's 
principle  that  the  hand  is  quicker  than  the 

1  "Researches  in  Spiritualism."    By  William  Crookes,  p.  6. 


110  The  Riddle  of  Personality 

eye.  One  evening,  to  cite  an  illustration  of 
his  methods  and  his  success,  Mr.  Davey 
visited  the  brothers  Podmore,  also  members 
of  the  society,  and,  with  Frank  Podmore  an 
interested  observer,  gave  Austin  a  slate- 
writing  seance.  The  latter  afterwards  wrote 
the  following  account  of  what  took  place: 

"A  few  weeks  ago  Mr.  D.  gave  me  a  seance, 
and,  to  the  best  of  my  recollection,  the  follow- 
ing was  the  result:  Mr.  D.  gave  me  an  ordinary 
school  slate,  which  I  held  at  one  end,  he  at 
the  other,  with  our  left  hands;  he  then  pro- 
duced a  double  slate,  hinged  and  locked. 
Without  removing  my  left  hand,  I  unlocked 
the  slate,  and  at  Mr.  D.'s  direction  placed 
three  small  pieces  of  chalk  —  red,  green,  and 
gray  —  inside.  I  then  relocked  the  slate, 
placed  the  key  in  my  pocket,  and  the  slate  on 
the  table  in  such  a  position  that  I  could  easily 
watch  both  the  slate  in  my  left  hand  and  the 
other  on  the  table.  After  some  few  minutes, 
during  which,  to  the  best  of  my  belief,  I  was 
attentively  regarding  both  slates,  Mr.  D. 
whisked  the  first  away,  and  showed  me  on 
the  reverse  a  message  written  to  myself. 
Almost  immediately  afterwards  he  asked  me 
to  unlock  the  second  slate,  and  on  doing  so 


The  Evidence  for  Survival  111 

I  found  to  my  intense  astonishment  another 
message  written  on  both  the  insides  of  the 
slate  —  the  lines  in  alternate  colors  and  the 
chalks  apparently  much  worn  by  usage.  My 
brother  tells  me  that  there  was  an  interval 
of  some  two  or  three  minutes,  during  which 
my  attention  was  called  away,  but  I  can  only 
believe  it  on  his  word." 

Obviously,  had  Mr.  Davey  posed  as  a 
medium  he  would  have  won  wide  repute. 
But  now  read  Frank  Podmore's  instructive 
comment : 

"Mr.  Davey  allowed  me  to  see  exactly 
what  was  done,  and  this  is  what  I  saw:  The 
*  almost  immediately'  in  the  above  account 
covered  an  interval  of  some  minutes.  Dur- 
ing this  interval,  and,  indeed,  throughout  the 
seance,  Davey  kept  up  a  constant  stream  of 
chatter,  on  matters  more  or  less  germane  to 
the  business  in  hand.  Mr.  A.  Podmore, 
absorbed  by  the  conjurer's  patter,  fixed  his 
eyes  on  Davey's  face,  and  the  latter  took  ad- 
vantage of  the  opportunity  to  remove  the 
locked  slate,  under  cover  of  a  duster,  from 
under  my  brother's  nose  to  the  far  end  of  the 
room,  and  there  exchange  it  for  a  similar 
slate,  with  a  previously  prepared  message, 


The  Riddle  of  Personality 

which  was  then  placed  by  means  of  the  same 
maneuver  with  the  duster  in  the  position 
originally  occupied  by  the  first  slate.  Then, 
and  only  then,  the  stream  of  talk  slackened, 
and  Mr.  A.  Podmore's  attention  became 
concentrated  upon  the  slate  from  which  the 
sound  of  spirit  writing  was  now  heard  to 
proceed.  To  me  the  most  surprising  thing 
in  the  whole  episode  was  Mr.  A.  Podmore's 
incredulity  when  told  that  his  attention  had 
been  diverted  from  the  slate  for  an  appre- 
ciable period."1 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  records  of  the 
Society  for  Psychical  Research,  so  far  as 
concerns  the  physical  phenomena,  form  an 
exhaustive  and  dismal  commentary  on  the 
gullibility  of  human  nature  and  the  devious 
ways  of  fraud.  Did  space  permit  it  would 
be  instructive  to  rehearse  the  exposures 
obtained  through  the  society's  efforts.  Refer- 
ence may  be  made  only  to  two  cases  of 
exceptional  importance,  the  case  of  Madame 
Blavatsky  and  the  case  of  Eusapia  Paladino. 
Madame  Blavatsky  will  be  remembered  as 
the  founder  of  the  Theosophical  Society, 
which  was  organized  in  New  York  early  in 

1  "Modern  Spiritualism,"  Vol.  II,  pp.  217-8. 


The  Evidence  for  Survival  113 

the  seventies,  and  which,  despite  the  proved 
imposture  of  its  originator,  still  numbers  its 
membership  among  the  thousands.  Accord- 
ing to  Madame  Blavatsky  there  existed  in 
far-away  Tibet  a  brotherhood  of  "Mahat- 
mas"  who  had  acquired  powers  enabling 
them  to  transcend  the  laws  of  nature  and 
work  marvels  and  miracles  of  all  sorts.  It 
was  her  claim  to  be  a  "chela,"  or  disciple,  of 
the  Mahatmas,  and  she  also  asserted  that  they 
were  particularly  interested  in  the  fortunes 
of  all  owning  allegiance  to  the  Theosophical 
Society.  In  1878  the  headquarters  of  the 
society  were  removed  from  New  York  to 
Adyar,  India,  and  now  the  outside  world  was 
regaled  with  most  sensational  stories.  The 
Mahatmas,  it  was  said,  were  accustomed  to 
cause  "apparitions  of  themselves  in  places 
where  their  bodies  are  not,"  to  hold  converse 
with  those  to  whom  they  so  appeared,  and  to 
be  aware  of  "what  is  going  on  where  their 
phantasm  appears."  Such  was  the  influence 
of  these  stories  that  in  1884  the  Society  for 
Psychical  Research  determined  to  investigate 
Madame  Blavatsky 's  claims.  A  committee 
was  appointed  consisting  of  Edmund  Gurney, 
F.  W.  H.  Myers,  Frank  Podmore,  Professor 


114  The  Riddle  of  Personality 

and  Mrs.  Sidgwick,  J.  H.  Stack,  and  Richard 
Hodgson,  and  the  last-named  gentleman  was 
commissioned  to  visit  the  Theosophical  head- 
quarters and  make  a  personal  inquiry  there. 
Thus  we  meet  for  the  first  time  one  of  the 
most  striking  figures  in  the  annals  of  psychical 
research.  Thereafter,  until  his  sudden  death 
in  Boston  in  the  winter  of  1905-06,  not  even 
F.  W.  H.  Myers  excelled  Richard  Hodgson 
in  single-minded  devotion  to  the  task  of 
endeavoring  to  determine  scientifically  the 
validity  of  the  belief  in  the  immortality  of  the 
soul.  In  the  end,  as  will  appear,  Hodgson 
was,  like  Myers,  converted  to  the  spiritistic 
hypothesis.  But  Madame  Blavatsky  was  not 
to  be  the  means  of  his  conversion.  On  the 
contrary,  he  succeeded  in  convicting  her  of 
the  grossest  frauds.  He  found  that  the  letters 
on  which  she  based  her  teachings  were  written, 
not,  as  she  claimed,  by  the  leader  of  the  alleged 
saints  of  the  Himalayas,  but  by  herself  or  at 
her  dictation.  He  also  ascertained  that  the 
headquarters  shrine  at  Adyar  was  equipped 
with  a  slide  opening  into  Madame  Blavatsky's 
bedroom,  and  that  she  was  thus  enabled  to 
extract  from  the  shrine  letters  addressed  to 
the  Mahatmas  by  votaries,  and  in  their  stead 


The  Evidence  for  Survival  115 

insert  replies  purporting  to  come  direct  from 
the  rocky  fastnesses  of  the  Brotherhood.  He 
even  records  that  a  clumsy  attempt  was  made 
to  persuade  him  of  the  genuineness  of  the 
phenomena,  by  causing  to  fall  at  his  feet  a 
letter  addressed  to  him  and  seemingly  mate- 
rializing out  of  the  air.  The  mechanism  of 
this  pleasing  performance,  it  subsequently 
developed,  was  a  convenient  crevice  in  the 
ceiling,  a  thread,  and  a  crafty  operator.  In 
fine,  the  exposure  was  complete  and  Dr. 
Hodgson  returned  to  England  with  laurels 
well  won. 

Eusapia  Paladino's  history  is  quite  different 
from  that  of  Madame  Blavatsky.  She  may 
be  accepted  as  typical  of  the  physical  side  of 
mediumship  at  its  best.  Materialization,  levi- 
tation,  all  the  more  salient  phenomena  are 
in  her  repertoire.  She  was  born  in  Italy  in 
1854  and,  judging  from  a  reference  in  a 
spiritistic  publication,  displayed  her  medium- 
istic  abilities  before  she  was  eighteen.  But 
her  fame  remained  local  until  1892,  when  she 
was  investigated  by  some  Italian  scientists 
whom  she  so  completely  mystified  that  they 
entered  a  verdict  received  with  acclaim  by 
spiritists  the  world  over.  In  their  report  they 


116  The  Riddle  of  Personality 

mentioned,  with  much  else,  that  while  she  was 
seated,  seemingly  immovable,  on  the  plat- 
form of  a  weighing  machine  the  scales  in- 
dicated a  weight  variation  of  some  twenty 
pounds.  The  Society  for  Psychical  Research 
became  interested  and  a  committee  journeyed 
to  France  to  meet  the  new  celebrity,  who  gave 
them  several  seances  at  the  home  of  Prof. 
Charles  Richet.  Although  the  sittings  took 
place  in  a  darkened  room  and  were  marked 
by  some  suspicious  circumstances,  the  con- 
sensus of  opinion  was  that  Eusapia  possessed 
supernormal  gifts.  Stay-at-home  members  of 
the  society  criticised  this  finding  and,  it  being 
agreed  that  further  inquiry  was  desirable,  the 
medium  was  invited  to  England.  Thither 
she  went  in  the  summer  of  1895,  and  at  first 
duplicated  her  former  triumphs.  But  when 
Dr.  Hodgson  became  one  of  the  investigators 
another  story  was  soon  told.  At  his  sugges- 
tion the  precautions  that  had  been  taken  were 
seemingly  relaxed,  and  it  was  then  found  that 
Eusapia,  with  misplaced  confidence,  boldly 
utilized  her  hands  and  feet  to  obtain  the 
phenomena  that  had  previously  amazed  the 
beholders.  The  society  at  once  lost  all  in- 
terest in  her  and  she  betook  herself  again  to 


The  Evidence  for  Survival  117 

the  Continent,  there,  unfortunately,  to  per- 
suade many  sympathizers  that  she  had  been 
badly  used  in  England  and  that,  even  if 
she  had  to  a  certain  extent  indulged  in  de- 
ception, the  bulk  of  her  phenomena  were 
genuine.1 

Quite  apart  from  the  fact  that  physical 
mediumship  has  failed  to  meet  any  really  ex- 
acting test  and  has  been  shown  to  be  perme- 
ated with  fraud,  there  is  one  all-sufficient 
reason  why  investigation  should  chiefly  be 
directed  to  the  purely  psychical  phenomena. 
In  order  to  be  able  to  say  positively  that  hu- 
man personality  persists  beyond  the  grave, 
it  is  obviously  necessary  to  establish  the 
identity  of  the  alleged  communicating  spirit. 
For  this  purpose  the  physical  phenomena, 
or  at  any  rate  the  vast  majority  of  them,  are 
valueless.  To  be  sure,  evidential  significance 
may  attach  to  such  manifestations  as  rappings 
which  profess  to  convey  a  coherent  message 
from  the  world  beyond,  but  such  feats  as  levi- 
tation,  elongation,  and  the  production  of 
apports,  difficult  though  it  may  be  to  explain 
them,  are  manifestly  impossible  of  citation  as 
proof  of  personal  identity.  This  objection 

1  See  Appendix  I. 


118  The  Riddle  0}  Personality 

does  not  apply  to  the  psychical  phenomena, 
which  further  differ  from  the  physical  in  the 
important  respect  that  patient  and  pains- 
taking inquiry  by  the  Society  for  Psychical 
Research  into  collected  instances  of  appari- 
tions, auditions,  automatically  written  or 
uttered  messages,  etc.,  has  led  the  investigators 
to  believe  that,  making  all  possible  allowance 
for  fraud,  illusion,  chance  coincidence,  and 
similar  sources  of  error,  a  large  residue  re- 
mains requiring  explanation  on  some  other 
hypothesis. 

In  order  to  appreciate  the  nature  of  the 
evidence  accumulated,  let  us  glance  at  a  few 
typical  instances,  each  drawn  from  the  society's 
records  and  thus  sufficiently  authenticated  to 
merit  serious  consideration.  We  may  begin 
with  an  old-fashioned  "ghost"  story  of  the 
simpler  sort.  In  this  instance  the  percipient, 
a  Mr.  J.,  was  a  personal  acquaintance  of 
F.  W.  H.  Myers,  who  obtained  a  first-hand  ac- 
count of  the  experience.  In  1880,  it  appears, 
Mr.  Q.,  the  librarian  of  X.  library,  died  and 
Mr.  J.  was  appointed  his  successor.  Mr.  J.  had 
not  known  Mr.  Q.  nor  had  he,  to  his  know- 
ledge, seen  any  portrait  of  him  when,  in  1884, 
or  four  years  after  his  death,  he  made  the  old 


The  Evidence  for  Survival  119 

librarian's  acquaintance  under  these  circum- 
stances : 

"I  was  sitting  alone  in  the  library  one 
evening  late  in  March,  1884,  finishing  some 
work  after  hours,  when  it  suddenly  occurred 
to  me  that  I  should  miss  the  last  train  to  H., 
where  I  was  then  living,  if  I  did  not  make 
haste.  ...  I  gathered  up  some  books  in  one 
hand,  took  the  lamp  in  the  other,  and  pre- 
pared to  leave  the  librarian's  room,  which 
communicated  by  a  passage  with  the  main 
room  of  the  library.  As  my  lamp  illumined 
the  passage  I  saw  apparently  at  the  end  of  it  a 
man's  face.  I  instantly  thought  a  thief  had 
got  into  the  library.  ...  I  turned  back  into 
my  room,  put  down  the  books,  and  took  a 
revolver  from  the  safe,  and,  holding  the  lamp 
cautiously  behind  me,  I  made  my  way  along 
the  passage  .  .  .  into  the  main  room.  Here 
I  saw  no  one,  but  the  room  was  large  and 
encumbered  with  bookcases.  I  called  out 
loudly  to  the  intruder  to  show  himself  several 
times,  more  with  the  hope  of  attracting  a 
passing  policeman  than  of  drawing  the  in- 
truder. Then  I  saw  a  face  looking  round  one 
of  the  bookcases.  I  say  round,  but  it  had  an 
odd  appearance  as  if  the  body  were  in  the 


120  The  Riddle  of  Personality 

bookcase,  as  the  face  came  so  closely  to  the 
edge  and  I  could  see  no  body.  The  face  was 
pallid  and  hairless,  and  the  orbits  of  the  eyes 
were  very  deep.  I  advanced  toward  it,  and 
as  I  did  so  I  saw  an  old  man  with  high 
shoulders  seem  to  rotate  out  of  the  end  of  the 
bookcase,  and  with  his  back  toward  me,  and 
with  a  shuffling  gait,  walk  rather  quickly 
from  the  bookcase  to  the  door  of  a  small 
lavatory,  which  opened  from  the  library  and 
had  no  other  access.  I  heard  no  noise.  I 
followed  the  man  at  once  into  the  lavatory; 
and  to  my  extreme  surprise  found  no  one 
there.  .  .  .  Completely  mystified,  I  even  looked 
into  the  little  cupboard  under  the  fixed  basin. 
There  was  nowhere  hiding  for  a  child,  and  I 
confess  I  began  to  experience  for  the  first 
time  what  novelists  describe  as  an  'eerie' 
feeling.  I  left  the  library,  and  found  I  had 
missed  my  train. 

"Next  morning  I  mentioned  what  I  had 
seen  to  a  local  clergyman  who,  on  hearing  my 
description,  said,  'Why,  that's  old  Q. !'  Soon 
after  I  saw  a  photograph  (from  a  drawing)  of 
Q.,  and  the  resemblance  was  certainly  strik- 
ing. Q.  had  lost  all  his  hair,  eyebrows  and 
all,  from  (I  believe)  a  gunpowder  accident. 


Tlw  Ew&ence  for  Survival  121 

His  walk  was  a  peculiar,  rapid,  high-shoul- 
dered shuffle.  Later  inquiry  proved  he  had 
died  at  about  the  time  of  year  at  which  I  saw 
the  figure."1 

This  is  a  capital  illustration  of  the  revenant 
type  of  apparition,  the  " ghost"  that  visits  a 
locality  with  which  it  was  familiar  in  life. 
Somewhat  similar,  but  having  a  coincidental 
significance,  is  the  story  of  the  "ghost"  seen 
by  the  Essex  gardener,  who  one  morning  be- 
held, as  he  thought,  a  lady  whom  he  knew 
standing  by  a  family  tomb.  The  lady  in 
question  was  then  supposed  to  be  in  London, 
but  as  she  had  an  almost  morbid  habit  of 
visiting  the  tomb,  the  gardener  supposed  that 
she  had  returned  from  the  city.  Later  it  was 
learned  that  at  the  time  he  imagined  he  saw 
her  she  was  lying  dead  in  London.  Most 
apparitions,  by  the  way,  or  at  any  rate  most 
of  those  recorded  by  the  society,  are  reported 
as  appearing  either  at  the  moment  of,  or 
shortly  after,  the  death  of  the  bodily  or- 
ganism, and  usually  the  percipients  are  the 
immediate  relatives  or  close  personal  friends 
of  the  deceased.  Sometimes,  it  would  seem, 

1  "Human  Personality  and  its  Survival  of  Bodily  Death,"  Vol.  II, 
pp.  380-1. 


122  The  Riddle  of  Personality 

"ghosts"  reveal  themselves  only  to  persons 
in  extremis.  Thus,  an  unnamed  but  "well- 
known  Irish  gentleman"  relates  that  when 
his  wife  was  dying  she  affirmed  that  she  saw 
in  a  corner  of  the  room  a  certain  Julia  Z., 
who  had  once  sung  at  a  house  party  given 
by  the  dying  woman  and  whose  apparition, 
according  to  the  unhappy  percipient,  was 
even  then  singing.  Since  Julia  Z.  was,  to 
the  best  of  his  knowledge,  alive  and  well,  her 
husband  suspected  all  this  to  be  "nothing 
but  the  fantasies  of  a  dying  person."  The 
day  after  his  wife's  death,  however,  he  was 
astounded  to  learn  that  Julia  Z.  had  herself 
died  a  fortnight  earlier,  and  on  writing  to  the 
latter's  husband  was  told  that  "on  the  day 
she  died  she  began  singing  in  the  morning, 
and  sang  and  sang  until  she  died." 

Then  there  is  the  "ghost"  that  appears  to 
warn  a  living  person  of  impending  misfor- 
tune. Take  the  strange  case  of  Mr.  F.  G., 
of  Boston,  who  writes: 

"In  1867  my  only  sister,  a  young  lady  of 
eighteen  years,  died  suddenly  of  cholera  in 
St.  Louis,  Mo.  My  attachment  for  her  was 
very  strong,  and  the  blow  a  severe  one  to  me. 
A  year  or  so  after  her  death  the  writer  became 


The  Evidence  for  Survival  123 

a  commercial  traveler,  and  it  was  in  1876, 
while  on  one  of  my  Western  trips,  that  the 
event  occurred. 

"I  had  'drummed'  the  city  of  St.  Joseph, 
Mo.,  and  had  gone  to  my  room  at  the  Pacific 
House  to  send  in  my  orders,  which  were 
unusually  large  ones,  so  that  I  was  in  a  very 
happy  frame  of  mind  indeed.  .  .  .  The  hour 
was  high  noon,  and  the  sun  was  shining 
cheerfully  into  my  room.  While  busily  smok- 
ing a  cigar  and  writing  out  my  orders,  I  sud- 
denly became  conscious  that  some  one  was 
sitting  on  my  left,  with  one  arm  resting  on 
the  table.  Quick  as  a  flash  I  turned  and 
distinctly  saw  the  form  of  my  dead  sister, 
and  for  a  brief  second  or  so  looked  her  squarely 
in  the  face;  and  so  sure  was  I  that  it  was  she, 
that  I  sprang  forward  in  delight,  calling  her 
by  name,  and,  as  I  did  so,  the  apparition 
instantly  vanished.  Naturally  I  was  startled 
and  dumfounded,  almost  doubting  my  senses; 
but  the  cigar  in  my  mouth,  and  pen  in  hand, 
with  the  ink  still  moist  on  my  letter,  I  satis- 
fied myself  I  had  not  been  dreaming  and  was 
wide  awake 

"Now  comes  the  most  remarkable  confirma- 
tion of  my  statement,  which  cannot  be  doubted 


124  The  Riddle  of  Personality 

by  those  who  know  what  I  state  actually 
occurred.  This  visitation,  or  whatever  you 
may  call  it,  so  impressed  me  that  I  took  the 
next  train  home,  and  in  the  presence  of  my 
parents  and  others  I  related  what  had  occurred. 
My  father,  a  man  of  rare  good  sense  and  very 
practical,  was  inclined  to  ridicule  me,  as  he 
saw  how  earnestly  I  believed  what  I  stated; 
but  he,  too,  was  amazed  when  later  on  I  told 
them  of  a  bright  red  line  or  scratch  on  the 
right-hand  side  of  my  sister's  face,  which  I 
distinctly  had  seen.  When  I  mentioned  this 
my  mother  rose  trembling  to  her  feet  and 
nearly  fainted  away,  and  as  soon  as  she 
sufficiently  recovered  her  self-possession,  with 
tears  streaming  down  her  face,  she  exclaimed 
that  I  had  indeed  seen  my  sister,  as  no  living 
mortal  but  herself  was  aware  of  that  scratch, 
which  she  had  accidentally  made  while  doing 
some  little  act  of  kindness  after  my  sister's 
death.  She  said  she  well  remembered  how 
pained  she  was  to  think  she  should  have,  un- 
intentionally, marred  the  features  of  her  dead 
daughter,  and  that  unknown  to  all,  how  she 
had  carefully  obliterated  all  traces  of  the 
slight  scratch  with  the  aid  of  powder,  etc., 
and  that  she  had  never  mentioned  it  to  a 


The  Evidence  for  Survival  125 

human  being  from  that  day  to  this.  In  proof, 
neither  my  father  nor  any  of  our  family  had 
detected  it,  and  positively  were  unaware  of 
the  incident,  yet  /  saw  the  scratch  as  bright 
as  if  just  made."1 

Whatever  the  explanation  of  the  apparition 
it  was  the  means  of  bringing  the  son  home  to 
take  a  long,  last  farewell  of  his  mother,  for 
she  died  within  a  fortnight  of  his  return, 
"'happy  in  her  belief  she  would  rejoin  her 
favorite  daughter  in  another  world."  And 
now  to  turn  to  psychical  phenomena  of  an- 
other type,  the  auditory  hallucinations  by 
which  knowledge  seems  to  be  conveyed  of 
deaths  occurring  far  outside  the  normal  ken 
of  the  percipient.  The  experience  of  a  Mr. 
Wambey  is  typical.  Once,  when  planning  a 
congratulatory  letter  to  a  friend,  the  words, 
"What!  write  to  a  dead  man?  write  to  a  dead 
man?"  rang  in  his  ears,  and  he  later  found 
that  his  friend  had  been  dead  for  some  days. 
Far  more  bizarre  was  an  incident  related  to 
Mr.  Myers  by  a  Mrs.  Davies.  An  acquaint- 
ance of  hers  had  changed  her  abode  unex- 
pectedly, and  it  was  arranged  that  Mrs. 

1  "Human  Personality  and  Its  Survival  of  Bodily  Death,"  Vol.  II, 
pp.  27-28. 


126  The  Riddle  of  Personality 

Davies  should  receive  her  mail  until  she 
could  communicate  her  new  address  to  her 
friends,  and  particularly  to  her  husband,  who 
was  in  India.  One  evening  a  letter  arrived 
bearing  the  India  postmark,  and  Mrs.  Davies 
placed  it  on  the  chimney-piece  intending  to 
ask  her  brother  to  hand  it  next  day  to  the 
addressee.  Suddenly  she  became  aware  of 
a  strange  ticking  sound  that  seemed  to  pro- 
ceed from  the  letter  itself.  Her  brother,  too, 
heard  it  and,  yielding  to  superstition,  they 
imagined  that  the  sound  meant,  "Important. 
To  be  delivered  at  once."  The  brother 
thereupon  put  on  his  hat  and  carried  the 
letter  to  their  friend,  who  found  it  to  be  a 
communication  from  an  unknown  correspond- 
ent, some  servant,  or  companion,  notifying 
her  of  her  husband's  death. 

Taken  singly,  such  incidents  as  the  above 
are  not  without  impressiveness.  Considered 
in  the  aggregate,  and  as  massed  by  the  thou- 
sand with  corroborative  data  carefully  pre- 
served in  the  society's  archives,  they  may  well 
give  one  pause.1  There  remains  to  be  men- 
tioned the  evidence  derivable  from  those 
automatisms  of  hand  and  tongue  in  which 

1  See  Appendix  II. 


The  Evidence  for  Survival  127 

the  medium,  seemingly  surrendering  her  facul- 
ties to  the  control  of  some  external  intelli- 
gence, writes  or  utters  messages  ostensibly 
coming  from  discarnate  spirits,  and  some- 
times conveying  such  private  personal  in- 
formation as  to  convince  many  of  the  identity 
of  the  alleged  communicant  and,  consequently, 
of  the  validity  of  the  belief  in  spirit  communi- 
cation. In  their  day  Moses  and  Home,  in 
addition  to  being  mediums  for  physical  phe- 
nomena, were  automatic  mediums  of  no  small 
renown.  But  in  this  respect  they  and  all 
other  mediums  have  been  outshone  by  a  New 
England  woman,  the  celebrated  Mrs.  Leonora 
F.  Piper,  of  Arlington,  Mass.,  whose  history 
may  advantageously  be  reviewed  as  represent- 
ing psychical  mediumship  at  its  zenith. 

What  makes  the  case  of  Mrs.  Piper  doubly 
interesting  is  the  circumstance  that  for  fully 
twenty  years  she  has  been  under  the  close 
observation  of  members  of  the  Society  for 
Psychical  Research  and  has  not  once  been 
detected  in  fraudulent  practices.  She  was 
brought  to  the  notice  of  the  society  in  1885 
by  Professor  James,  who  wrote  that  he  was 
"persuaded  of  the  medium's  honesty  and  of 
the  genuineness  of  her  trance,  and  although 


128  The  Riddle  of  Personality 

at  first  disposed  to  think  that  the  *  hits'  she 
made  were  either  lucky  coincidences,  or  the 
result  of  knowledge  on  her  part  of  who  the 
sitter  was  and  of  his  or  her  family  affairs,  I 
now  believe  her  to  be  in  possession  of  a  power 
as  yet  unexplained."  At  that  time  Mrs. 
Piper  was  supposed  to  be  "controlled"  by 
the  spirit  of  a  French  physician  with  the 
peculiar  name  of  "Phinuit,"  through  whose 
instrumentality  various  sitters,  including  men 
prominent  in  the  scientific  life  of  the  United 
States,  received  more  or  less  intimate  mes- 
sages purporting  to  come  from  deceased 
friends. 

Such  was  the  impression  made  on  the 
society  by  Professor  James's  report  that  in 
1887  Dr.  Hodgson  was  commissioned  to  go 
to  America  and  conduct  an  inquiry.  His  first 
step  was  to  employ  detectives  to  shadow  both 
Mr.  and  Mrs.  Piper,  but  nothing  suspicious 
was  discovered  in  the  conduct  of  either,  and, 
satisfied  that,  whatever  their  source,  the 
phenomena  manifested  through  her  were  not 
to  be  explained  on  the  basis  of  fraud,  Dr. 
Hodgson  recommended  that  she  be  invited 
to  England  for  further  investigation.  Upon 
her  arrival  elaborate  precautions  were  taken 


The  Evidence  for  Survival  129 

to  prevent  her  securing  any  information  con- 
cerning prospective  sitters.  She  was  met  at 
Liverpool  by  Sir  Oliver  Lodge  and  conducted 
to  a  hotel,  whence  Mr.  Myers  took  her  to  his 
home  at  Cambridge.  There  she  was  attended 
by  a  servant  —  a  young  woman  from  a  coun- 
try village  —  selected  by  Mr.  Myers  and  quite 
ignorant  of  his  and  his  friends'  affairs.  Her 
baggage  was  carefully  overhauled  for  any 
data  she  might  have  brought  with  her,  and 
her  daily  mail  was  closely  examined.  But  no 
evidence  was  forthcoming  to  show  that  she 
secured  her  trance  information  by  normal 
means. 

Numerous  sittings  were  held,  not  all  of 
which  were  successful  and  some  of  which 
were  marked  by  distinctly  suspicious  failures. 
But  when  success  was  achieved  it  was  con- 
spicuous and  startling.  To  give  an  instance, 
Sir  Oliver  Lodge  handed  to  the  entranced 
Mrs.  Piper  a  watch  he  had  procured  from  an 
uncle  who  in  turn  had  inherited  it  from  a 
twin  brother,  then  dead  for  some  twenty  years. 
Immediately  "Phinuit,"  claiming  to  speak  in 
behalf  of  the  deceased  uncle,  recited  several 
incidents  of  the  latter 's  youth,  and  these  were 
subsequently  corroborated  by  the  living  uncle. 


130  The  Riddle  of  Personality 

Striking  success  was  likewise  obtained  in  the 
case  of  a  Mr.  Thompson.  I  quote  from  Sir 
Oliver  Lodge : 

"One  of  the  best  sitters  was  my  next-door 
neighbor,  Isaac  C.  Thompson,  F.L.S.,  to 
whose  name  indeed,  before  he  had  been  in 
any  way  introduced,  Phinuit  sent  a  message 
purporting  to  come  from  his  father.  Three 
generations  of  his  and  of  his  wife's  family, 
living  and  dead  (small  and  compact  Quaker 
families),  were,  in  the  course  of  two  or  three 
sittings,  conspicuously  mentioned,  with  identi- 
fying detail;  the  main  informant  representing 
himself  as  his  deceased  brother,  a  young 
Edinburgh  doctor,  whose  loss  had  been 
mourned  some  twenty  years  ago.  The  fa- 
miliarity and  touchingness  of  the  messages 
communicated  in  this  particular  instance  were 
very  remarkable,  and  can  by  no  means  be 
reproduced  in  any  printed  report  of  the  pitting. 
Their  case  is  one  in  which  very  few  mistakes 
were  made,  the  details  standing  out  vividly 
correct,  so  that  in  fact  they  found  it  impos- 
sible not  to  believe  that  their  relatives  were 
actually  speaking  to  them."1 

1  "Proceedings  of  the  Society  for  Psychical  Research,"  Vol.  VI, 
p.  455. 


The  Evidence  for  Survival  131 

Puzzled,  but  not  wholly  persuaded  that  the 
messages  delivered  through  Mrs.  Piper  actu- 
ally came  from  the  dead,  the  society  directed 
Dr.  Hodgson  to  continue  investigation  in  the 
United  States.  This  mission,  it  may  be  added 
in  passing,  occupied  him  to  the  day  of  his 
death  and  was  ultimately  the  means  of  con- 
verting him  to  the  spiritistic  hypothesis. 

Shortly  after  Mrs.  Piper's  return  to  America 
her  "control"  changed  under  most  extraor- 
dinary circumstances.  There  had  been  liv- 
ing in  Boston  a  young  lawyer  and  author, 
known  in  the  society's  records  under  the 
pseudonym  of  George  Pelham,  between  whom 
and  Dr.  Hodgson  a  warm  friendship  had 
arisen.  Naturally,  they  discussed  at  times 
the  subject  of  Dr.  Hodgson's  labors,  and  Pel- 
ham,  who  was  a  thoroughgoing  skeptic,  on 
one  occasion  laughingly  promised  Dr.  Hodg- 
son that  should  he  die  before  the  latter  and 
find  himself  "still  existing"  he  would  "make 
things  lively"  in  the  effort  to  reveal  the  fact 
of  his  continued  existence.  In  February, 
1892,  he  was  killed  accidentally,  and  probably 
instantaneously,  by  a  fall.  About  a  month 
later,  at  a  sitting  attended  by  Dr.  Hodgson 
and  a  Mr.  Hart,  another  friend  of  the  dead 


132  Tlie  Riddle  of  Personality 

lawyer,  "Phinuit"  suddenly  announced  that 
"George  Pelham"  was  present  and  wished 
to  communicate.  Then  followed  a  series  of 
statements  tending  to  prove  that  the  com- 
municant was  none  other  than  Pelham  him- 
self. Pelham's  real  name  was  given  in  full, 
also  the  names  of  several  of  his  most  intimate 
friends,  and  reference  was  made  to  incidents 
unknown  to  either  of  the  sitters  but  subse- 
quently verified  by  them. 

Further  proof  of  identify  was  offered  at 
later  seances,  and  it  soon  became  evident 
that  "George  Pelham"  intended  to  oust 
"Phinuit"  from  control.  With  the  substi- 
tution, which  was  gradual,  the  mechanism 
of  Mrs.  Piper's  mediumship  was  likewise 
strangely  altered.  During  the  "Phinuit" 
regime  the  messages  had  been  delivered 
orally;  now  they  were  transmitted  by  means 
of  automatic  writing,  a  feature  which  per- 
sisted with  the  subsequent  appearance  of  new 
"controls,"  none  other  than  the  "Impera- 
tor,"  "Rector,"  "Doctor,"  "Mentor,"  and 
"Prudens"  group  that  had  in  bygone  years 
claimed  to  "control "the  trance  utterances  of 
the  Rev.  Stainton  Moses.  It  was  also  notice- 
able that  with  the  change  in  method  of  de- 


The  Evidence  for  Survival  133 

livery  the  messages  assumed  a  finer  tone  of 
reality,  and  so  striking  did  they  become  that 
by  1898  Dr.  Hodgson,  who  had  previously 
issued  a  report  dismissing  alike  the  theory  of 
fraud  and  the  spiritistic  hypothesis,  felt  im- 
pelled to  adopt  the  latter  unreservedly. 

Now  appeared  a  new  investigator  in  the 
person  of  Dr.  James  H.  Hyslop,  at  that  time 
professor  of  logic  and  ethics  in  Columbia 
University.  With  the  cooperation  of  Dr. 
Hodgson  he  held  seventeen  sittings  with  Mrs. 
Piper  during  1898  and  1899,  and  in  each  took 
extraordinary  precautions  to  make  sure  that 
she  would  not  recognize  him.  Driving  to  her 
residence  in  a  closed  carriage,  he  donned  a 
mask  before  entering  her  presence,  was  in- 
troduced to  her  as  "Mr.  Smith,"  and  while 
she  was  in  her  normal  state  maintained  com- 
plete silence.  From  the  outset  he  obtained 
messages  that  left  him  in  a  state  of  bewilder- 
ment, relating  as  they  did  to  occurrences 
transpiring  years  earlier  in  connection  with 
the  careers  of  dead  relatives  and  friends. 
Frequently  the  alleged  communicator  was  the 
"spirit"  of  his  father,  who  recounted  many 
incidents  unknown  to  Professor  Hyslop,  but 
afterwards  learned  to  be  true.  In  the  end  the 


134  The  Riddle  of  Personality 

professor,  like  Dr.  Hodgson  before  him, 
adopted  the  spiritistic  hypothesis  as  the  only 
theory  adequate  to  meet  all  facts  in  the  case. 
And  in  this  view  he  has  been  further  con- 
firmed by  a  development  of  quite  recent  ori- 
gin, the  displacement  of  the  old  "controls" 
"George  Pelham,"  "Imperator,"  and  the 
rest  —  by  the  "spirit"  of  none  other  than 
the  veteran  psychical  researcher,  Dr.  Hodgson 
himself. 

As  things  stand,  it  is  asserted,  Dr.  Hodgson 
dead  directs  the  investigation  of  Mrs.  Piper 
even  more  effectively  that  did  Dr.  Hodgson 
alive.  Taking  possession  of  her  entranced 
organism,  he  has  attempted,  at  sittings 
attended  by  Professors  Hyslop  and  James 
among  others,  to  give  absolute  and  unques- 
tionable proof  of  his  continued  existence. 
Professor  Hyslop  seems  persuaded  that  he 
has  actually  been  in  communication  with  his 
dead  colleague;  and  Professor  James,  who  is 
preparing  a  report  on  the  "Hodgson"  mani- 
festations, deems  "it  all  extremely  baffling." 

In  point  of  fact,  altogether  apart  from  what 
may  have  developed  since  Dr.  Hodgson's 
death,  the  conclusion  from  the  cumulative 
evidence  of  the  Piper  case  and  the  cases  of 


The  Evidence  for  Survival  135 

apparition,  etc.,  collected  by  the  Society  for 
Psychical  Research,  would  naturally  seem  to 
be  that  spirit  communication  has  been  defi- 
nitely proved  and  that,  therefore,  we  now  know 
for  certain  that  human  personality  survives 
the  death  of  the  body.  Nevertheless,  before 
finally  accepting  the  spiritistic  hypothesis 
as  proved  it  is  imperative  to  endeavor  to 
ascertain  whether  there  may  not  be  some 
other  hypothesis,  devoid  of  supernatural  impli- 
cations, which  will  account  for  the  phenomena 
in  question.  The  hypothesis  of  wholesale 
fraud  and  delusion  is — or  so  it  seems  to  me  — 
quite  out  of  question,  although  still  main- 
tained by  many  who  would  thus  summarily 
dismiss  the  facts  so  laboriously  assembled. 
But  there  remains  another  hypothesis,  a 
hypothesis  rendered  available  by  the  society's 
researches  into  the  possibility  of  the  trans- 
mission of  thought  from  mind  to  mind  with- 
out the  intervention  of  the  ordinary  means  of 
communication.  Let  us  look  into  the  sub- 
ject more  closely. 


CHAPTER  VI 

THE  NEMESIS  OF  SPIRITISM 

IN  indicating  the  reasons  for  proffering 
the  suggestion  that  in  telepathy  may  be 
found  an  adequate  explanation  of  all 
phenomena  like  those  recorded  in  the  pre- 
ceding chapter,  it  is  only  fair  to  begin  by  re- 
minding the  reader  that,  as  stated  on  an  earlier 
page,  telepathy  is  itself  held  suspect  by  many 
of  intellectual  and  scientific  eminence.  In 
the  face  of  the  evidence  accumulated  by  the 
Society  for  Psychical  Research  and  by  in- 
dependent inquirers  during  the  past  quarter 
of  a  century,  these  skeptics  do  not  hesitate  to 
deny  that  thought  can  be  transmitted  from 
mind  to  mind  without  passing  through  the 
ordinary,  known  channels  of  communication. 
They  lay  much  stress  on  the  obvious  fact  that 
telepathy  is  not  demonstrable  at  will,  and,  too 
often  without  undertaking  any  personal  in- 
quiry, they  brush  aside  as  resting  on  chance 
or  collusion  or  imagination  the  enormous  mass 

136 


The  Nemesis  of  Spiritism  137 

of  evidence  already  garnered  from  every 
quarter  of  the  world.  To  the  present  writer, 
as  to  other  and  more  competent  students  of 
the  subject,  this  position  is  wholly  untenable. 
It  is  quite  true  that  we  are  sadly  ignorant  of 
the  laws  of  telepathy;  but  it  would  seem  equally 
certain  that  telepathy  itself  is  an  established 
fact  —  established  by  the  experiments  of  the 
psychical  researchers  and  by  the  thousands 
upon  thousands  of  spontaneous  instances  re- 
corded by  individuals. 

Nor  are  we  wholly  in  the  dark  as  to  the 
nature  and  mechanism  of  telepathy.  From 
the  labors  of  Myers,  Sidgwick,  Gurney,  et  al., 
we  know,  for  example,  that  telepathy  is  dis- 
tinctly a  faculty  of  that  hidden  portion  of  our 
being  which  Myers  so  happily  termed  the 
subliminal  self.  We  know,  further,  that  while 
telepathic  messages  are  of  most  frequent 
occurrence  between  those  allied  by  ties  of 
blood  or  friendship,  they  are  possible  between 
mere  acquaintances,  even  between  strangers. 
And  investigation  has  likewise  shown  that 
such  messages  are  often  conveyed  not  in  the 
form  of  an  idea  but  as  hallucinations,  audi- 
tory or  visual,  and  not  infrequently  as  sym- 
bolical hallucinations.  To  quote  from  the 


138  The  Riddle  of  Personality 

experience  of  the  late  Thomson  Jay  Hudson, 
one  of  the  best-known  students  of  telepathy : 

"I  determined,  if  possible,  to  develop  the 
faculty  [of  telepathy]  in  my  own  mind,  at 
least  far  enough  to  resolve  any  lingering 
doubt  that  might  be  unconsciously  enter- 
tained. Accordingly,  I  caused  myself  to  be 
securely  blindfolded  in  presence  of  my  family 
and  two  or  three  trustworthy  friends,  and  in- 
structed them  to  draw  a  card  from  the  pack, 
place  it  upon  a  table,  face  up,  and  in  full  view 
of  all  but  myself.  I  enjoined  absolute  silence, 
and  requested  them  to  gaze  steadily  upon  the 
card  and  patiently  await  results.  I  deter- 
mined not  to  yield  to  any  mere  mental  im- 
pression, but  to  watch  for  a  vision  of  the  card 
itself.  I  endeavored  to  become  as  passive 
as  possible,  and  to  shut  out  all  objective 
thoughts.  In  fact,  I  tried  to  go  to  sleep.  I 
soon  found  that  the  moment  I  approached  a 
state  of  somnolence  I  began  to  see  visions  of 
self-illuminated  objects  floating  in  the  dark- 
ness before  me.  If,  however,  one  seemed  to 
be  taking  definite  shape  it  would  instantly 
rouse  me,  and  the  vision  would  vanish.  At 
length  I  mastered  my  curiosity  sufficiently 
to  enable  me  to  hold  the  vision  long  enough 


The  Nemesis  of  Spiritism  139 

to  perceive  its  import.  When  that  was  accom- 
plished, I  saw  —  not  a  card  with  its  spots 
clearly  defined,  but  a  number  of  objects 
arranged  in  rows  and  resembling  real  dia- 
monds. I  was  finally  able  to  count  them, 
and  finding  that  there  were  ten,  I  ventured 
to  name  the  ten  of  diamonds.  The  applause 
which  followed  told  me  that  I  was  right,  and 
I  removed  the  bandage  and  found  the  ten  of 
diamonds  lying  on  the  table.  The  vision  was 
symbolical  merely,  but  no  other  possible 
symbol  could  have  conveyed  a  clearer  idea 
of  the  fact  as  it  existed."1 

In  further  experiments  Dr.  Hudson  ob- 
tained similar  results,  confirmation  of  which 
has  been  repeatedly  given  by  other  investi- 
gators who  have  also  demonstrated  the  occur- 
rence of  hallucinations  exactly  corresponding 
to  the  object  in  the  mind  of  the  agent,  or 
sender,  and  have  in  addition  made  certain 
the  possibility  of  what  is  technically  known 
as  deferred  percipience.  In  deferred  percipi- 
ence  the  telepathic  message,  after  its  receipt 
by  the  subliminal  self,  lies  submerged  beneath 
the  threshold  of  consciousness  until  favor- 
ing conditions  (e.g.,  hypnosis,  normal  sleep, 

1  "The  Evolution  of  the  Soul,"  by  T.  J.  Hudson,  p.  188. 


140  The  Riddle  o]  Personality 

fatigue,  or  other  causes  inhibiting  the  action 
of  the  supraliminal  self)  permit  its  appearance 
above  the  threshold.  A  striking  illustration, 
both  of  veridical  hallucination  and  deferred 
percipience,  is  afforded  by  an  experiment 
tried  more  than  twenty  years  ago  by  an  Eng- 
lish clergyman,  the  Rev.  Clarence  Godfrey, 
who  undertook  to  cause  a  distant  friend,  a 
lady  whose  identity  is  not  revealed  in  the 
records  of  the  case,  to  see  a  telepathic  appari- 
tion of  him.  Accordingly,  when  he  retired 
one  evening  (at  10.45  P.M.,  on  November  15, 
1886),  he  began  intently  to  "will"  that  she 
should  see  him.  His  "willing"  lasted  for 
less  than  ten  minutes,  when  he  fell  asleep. 
Some  hours  later  his  friend  had  the  following 
uncanny  experience: 

*  Yesterday  —  viz.,  the  morning  of  Novem- 
ber 16,  1886  —  about  half -past  three  o'clock, 
I  woke  up  with  a  start  and  an  idea  that  some 
one  had  come  into  the  room.  I  heard  a  curi- 
ous sound,  but  fancied  it  might  be  the  birds 
in  the  ivy  outside.  Next  I  experienced  a 
strange,  restless  longing  to  leave  the  room 
and  go  down  stairs.  This  feeling  became  so 
overpowering  that  at  last  I  arose  and  lit  a 
candle  and  went  down,  thinking  that  if  I 


The  Nemesis  of  Spiritism  141 

could  get  some  soda  water  it  might  have  a 
quieting  effect.  On  returning  to  my  room 
I  saw  Mr.  Godfrey  standing  under  the  large 
window  on  the  staircase.  He  was  dressed  in 
his  usual  style,  and  with  an  expression  on  his 
face  that  I  have  noticed  when  he  has  been 
looking  earnestly  at  anything.  He  stood 
there,  and  I  held  up  the  candle  and  gazed  at 
him  for  three  or  four  seconds  in  utter  amaze- 
ment, and  then,  as  I  passed  up  the  staircase, 
he  disappeared.  The  impression  left  on  my 
mind  was  so  vivid  that  I  fully  intended  wak- 
ing a  friend  who  occupied  the  same  room  as 
myself,  but  remembering  that  I  should  only 
be  laughed  at  as  romantic  and  imaginative, 
I  refrained  from  doing  so."1 

Nor  does  this  case  stand  alone,  the  records 
of  the  Society  for  Psychical  Research  con- 
taining a  number  of  similar  experiments 
successfully  carried  out.  Thus,  a  Mr.  Kirk 
from  a  distance  of  several  miles  caused  a 
telepathic  phantasm  to  appear  to  a  Miss  G., 
and  this  in  broad  daylight.  Miss  G.'s  re- 

1  This  account  was  written  by  the  percipient  at  Mr.  Godfrey's 
request,  and  by  him  was  transmitted  to  Frank  Podmore.  For  de- 
tails consult  Mr.  Podmore's  "Apparitions  and  Thought  Trans- 
ference," or  the  second  edition  of  "Phantasms  of  the  Living,"  by 
Edmund  Gurney  and  others. 


142  The  Riddle  of  Personality 

port,  published  in  the  society's  "Proceed- 
ings," informs  us: 

"A  peculiar  occurrence  happened  to  me  on 
the  Wednesday  of  the  week  before  last.  In 
the  afternoon  (being  tired  by  a  morning  walk) 
while  sitting  in  an  easy  chair  near  the  window 
of  my  own  room,  I  fell  asleep.  At  any  time  I 
happen  to  sleep  during  the  day  (which  is  but 
seldom)  I  invariably  awake  with  tired,  un- 
comfortable sensations  which  take  some  little 
time  to  pass  off,  but  that  afternoon,  on  the 
contrary,  I  was  suddenly  quite  wide  awake, 
seeing  Mr.  Kirk  standing  near  my  chair, 
dressed  in  a  dark-brown  coat,  which  I  had 
frequently  seen  him  wear.  His  back  was 
toward  the  window,  his  right  hand  toward 
me;  he  passed  across  the  room  toward  the 
door  .  .  .  but  when  he  got  about  four  feet  from 
the  door,  which  was  closed,  he  disappeared." 

The  significance  of  this  phenomenon  to  our 
present  subject  of  inquiry  may  be  emphasized 
by  yet  another  illustration  —  the  experimental 
production,  by  means  of  telepathy,  of  an 
apparition  not  of  the  living  but  of  the  dead. 
The  experimenter,  a  certain  Herr  Wesermann, 
determined  to  cause  a  Lieutenant  N.  to  see  in 
a  dream  a  vision  of  a  lady  who  had  been  dead 


The  Nemesis  of  Spiritism  143 

for  some  years,  his  purpose  being  to  incite 
Lieutenant  N.  thereby  to  "a  good  action." 
Eleven  o'clock  was  selected  by  him  as  the 
hour  for  the  experiment,  nothing  of  which,  of 
course,  was  know  to  N.  But  at  eleven  the 
latter,  instead  of  being  in  bed  and  asleep,  was 
conversing  with  a  fellow  officer  in  his  room  at 
the  barracks.  Nevertheless,  the  experiment, 
if  Herr  Wesermann's  narrative  is  to  be  ac- 
cepted, was  a  complete  and  sensational  suc- 
cess. The  door  of  the  chamber  seemed  to 
open  and  the  "ghost"  of  the  dead  lady  to 
walk  in.  Both  of  the  astounded  warriors 
claimed  to  have  seen  her  distinctly,  and  both, 
upon  her  disappearance,  excitedly  summoned 
the  sentinel,  who  assured  them  that  no  one 
had  entered  the  room. 

It  thus  would  seem  possible  to  explain  at 
least  one  of  the  two  great  divisions  of  psychi- 
cal phenomena  —  the  apparitions  and  audi- 
tions —  on  a  telepathic  basis,  and  thereby 
completely  avoid  recourse  to  a  spiritistic, 
supermundane  hypothesis.  Undoubtedly,  had 
Mr.  Godfrey  or  Mr.  Kirk  died  at  the  moment 
of  attempting  their  experiments,  the  percipi- 
ents would  have  believed  to  their  last  days 
that  they  had  seen  a  ghost.  But,  nobody 


144  The  Riddle  of  Personality 

being  dead,  "spirits"  were  quite  out  of  the 
question.  Similarly,  it  is  the  writer's  firm 
belief,  even  when  the  dead  are  involved  there 
is  no  necessity  of  raising  the  cry  of  "spirits." 
To  put  it  otherwise,  it  is  his  conviction  that 
whenever  an  apparition  is  seen,  or  a  ghostly 
voice  or  sound  heard  (always  excepting,  of 
course,  the  effects  of  illusion  pure  and  simple), 
we  have  to  do  with  a  telepathic  hallucination 
proceeding  not  from  the  dead  but  from  the 
living,  if,  it  may  be,  the  living  about  to  be 
numbered  with  the  dead.  By  way  of  illus- 
tration, let  us  glance  again  at  the  cases  cited 
in  the  preceding  chapter. 

There  is,  first,  the  ghost  of  the  old  librarian. 
On  the  telepathic  hypothesis  all  that  it  is 
needful  to  assume  is  that  the  percipient,  Mr. 
J.,  had  at  some  time  or  other  seen  a  portrait 
of  his  predecessor,  Mr.  Q.,  and  had  heard 
his  characteristics  mentioned.  Mr.  J.  himself 
denied  any  knowledge  thus  gained,  and  his 
denial  might  well  have  been  made  in  good 
faith,  for  such  incidents  could  easily  fade  from 
his  waking  memory.  They  could  not,  how- 
ever, escape  the  memory  of  his  subconscious, 
subjective,  subliminal  self,  the  self  that  never 
sleeps  and  never  forgets,  as  hypnotic  experi- 


The  Nemesis  of  Spiritism  145 

ment  has  abundantly  shown.  We  may  readily 
imagine  him,  therefore,  equipped  subcon- 
sciously with  an  excellent  mental  portrait  of 
Mr.  Q.,  of  whom  his  waking  self  is  in  com- 
plete ignorance.  Thus  equipped  he  is  seated 
at  his  desk,  late  at  night,  and  in  a  solitude 
that  might  easily  breed  "nervousness."  In 
fine,  his  environment  and  his  occupation  are 
admirably  united  to  create  a  condition  of  sub- 
jective activity  and  to  weaken  his  objective 
faculties.  He  rises  to  start  for  home,  and  as 
he  rises  his  eye  glimpses  something.  "What's 
that?"  is  his  mental  query,  and  "A  face"  is 
his  mental  reply.  Instantly  he  begins  to 
wonder,  subconsciously,  whose  face  it  may 
be,  and  forthwith  as  a  result  of  subconscious 
association  of  ideas  there  wells  up,  as  it  were, 
a  full-length  portrait  of  "old  Q.,"  which  pre- 
sents itself  to  the  waking  consciousness  in 
the  form  of  a  visual  hallucination. 

The  ghost  seen  by  the  Essex  gardener  is  at 
first  sight  far  more  difficult  of  explanation  on 
the  telepathic  hypothesis,  for  the  reason,  as 
Messrs.  Gurney  and  Myers  were  quick  to 
point  out,1  that  it  seems  hard  to  imagine  how 

^'Proceedings  of  the  Society  of  Psychical  Research,"  Vol.  V, 
p.  415. 


146  The  Riddle  of  Personality 

a  state  of  "rapport"  could  have  been  created 
between  the  gardener  and  the  lady  whose 
figure  he  thought  he  saw  standing  by  the 
tomb.  But  a  little  analysis  will  make  the 
matter  plain.  We  know  that  the  gardener 
frequently  saw  the  lady,  while  alive,  visiting 
this  particular  tomb;  and  we  are  consequently 
warranted  in  assuming  that  the  lady  likewise 
saw  the  gardener,  and,  it  being  a  somewhat 
solitary  spot,  while  in  that  vicinity  was  un- 
likely to  see  any  one  else.  Thus,  if  for  no 
other  reason,  the  thought  of  the  gardener 
would  be  firmly  implanted  in  her  subjective 
mind.  As  she  lay  dying,  our  hypothesis 
would  run,  her  subliminal,  if  not  her  supra- 
liminal,  consciousness  winged  its  way  in 
imagination  to  the  locality  she  delighted  to 
visit,  and  in  imagination  beheld  the  tomb 
once  more  and  with  the  tomb  the  gardener. 
Then,  and  not  till  then,  would  her  subjective 
mind  flash  its  message  to  his,  to  remain  below 
the  threshold  of  his  consciousness  until,  in  the 
morning  and  seven  hours  after  her  death,  he 
approached  the  tomb.  The  sight  of  this 
might  then  cause  him  to  think,  consciously 
or  subconsciously,  of  the  familiar  figure,  and 
at  once  the  telepathic  message  would  be  ex- 
ternalized as  a  "ghost." 


The  Nemesis  o]  Spiritism  147 

Similarly  in  the  case  of  the  vision  of  the 
singing  Julia  Z.,  seen  and  heard  by  the  dying 
wife  of  the  "well-known  Irish  gentleman." 
The  published  details,  as  given  in  the  third 
volume  of  the  "Proceedings  of  the  Society 
for  Psychical  Research,"  show  that  there 
were  excellent  reasons  why  Julia  Z.  should 
associate  her  musical  gift  with  the  name  of 
the  Irish  gentleman's  wife,  and  consequently 
why,  when  on  her  deathbed,  her  subjective 
mind  should  transmit  news  of  the  impending 
tragedy  to  the  subjective  mind  of  the  wife, 
to  lie  submerged  there  until  the  numbing  of 
the  latter's  faculties  and  then  appearing  in  the 
dual  form  of  an  auditory  and  visual  hallucina- 
tion. In  this,  as  in  the  instance  of  the  ghost 
seen  by  the  gardener,  seems  clearly  exempli- 
fied the  truth  of  what  may  be  called  a  sub- 
theory  of  the  telepathic  theory  —  namely,  that 
the  subjective  mind  is  most  active  at  the 
moment  of  some  crisis,  it  may  be  death,  an 
accident,  or  the  strain  of  an  intense  emotion. 

Next  we  have  the  apparition  with  the  red 
scratch,  seen  by  Mr.  F.  G.,  of  Boston.  This, 
the  confirmed  spiritist  would  hasten  to  assure 
us,  is  absolutely  inexplicable  by  telepathy. 
But  let  us  not  lose  heart  too  soon.  The  main 


148  The  Riddle  of  Personality 

facts  to  be  explained  are  the  apparition  itself, 
the  perception  of  the  scratch  on  the  face  of 
the  apparition,  and  the  death  of  Mr.  F.  G.'s 
mother  so  soon  after  the  apparition  was  seen. 
If  the  reader  will  refer  to  the  fourth  chapter 
he  will  there  find  in  the  portion  descriptive 
of  the  work  of  Dr.  Sidis  a  case  throwing  not 
a  little  light  on  the  present  problem.  It  is 
the  case  of  Mr.  R.,  the  business  man  afflicted 
with  a  tremor.  Upon  hypnotization  Dr.  Sidis 
discovered  that  the  subliminal  self  of  Mr.  R. 
was  actively  and  constantly  occupied  with 
thoughts  of  the  wife  who  had  died  some  years 
before.  Now,  Mr.  F.  G.  explicitly  states 
that  he  was  particularly  fond  of  his  deceased 
sister,  and,  arguing  by  analogy  from  the 
case  of  Mr.  R.  and  other  similar  cases,  we 
are  warranted  in  the  assumption  that  her 
image  was  frequently  present  in  his  subcon- 
sciousness.  But,  bearing  in  mind  the  scratch 
and  the  coincidental  aspect  of  the  apparition 
.with  respect  to  the  speedy  death  of  Mr.  F.  G.'s 
mother,  we  are  not  warranted  in  assuming 
that  the  hallucination  was  generated  spon- 
taneously from  Mr.  F.  G.'s  subconsciousness. 
We  must  seek  its  origin  elsewhere. 

We  find  it,  the  writer  believes,  in  the  sub- 


TJie  Nemesis  of  Spiritism  149 

consciousness  of  the  mother.  It  is  a  fact, 
though  not  generally  known,  that  physical 
disorders  frequently  manifest  themselves  sub- 
consciously long  before  the  patient  becomes 
consciously  aware  of  the  action  of  the  malady. 
Thus,  to  give  an  example  from  personal  ex- 
perience, the  writer  some  little  time  ago  was 
obliged  to  submit  to  a  surgical  operation,  the 
necessity  for  which  was  only  accidentally  dis- 
covered by  his  physician.  He  had  consciously 
suffered  no  pain,  not  even  any  inconvenience. 
But,  singularly  enough,  for  weeks  previous 
to  the  operation  he  had  had  a  recurring  sym- 
bolical dream  of  a  cat  tearing  at  the  part 
ultimately  found  to  be  affected;  and,  once  the 
surgeon's  knife  was  used,  this  dream  came 
no  more.  Quite  possibly,  therefore,  the 
mother's  subconsciousness  possessed  knowl- 
edge, denied  to  her  waking  self,  of  the  disease 
that  was  so  soon  to  terminate  fatally.  Thence 
might  easily  arise  a  subconscious  yearning  to 
see  her  son  once  more,  and  a  subconscious 
determination  to  send  him  a  message  that 
would  summon  him  home.  In  "rapport"  as 
the  mother  and  son  doubtless  were,  the  sub- 
liminal self  of  the  former  was  well  aware  of 
the  image  constantly  present  to  the  sub- 


150  The  Riddle  of  Personality 

liminal  self  of  the  latter,  and  it  was  this  image, 
the  image  of  the  dead  sister,  that  was  utilized 
to  express  the  mother's  subconscious  desire; 
but  necessarily  utilized,  be  it  noted,  not  in  the 
form  present  in  the  son's  subconsciousness, 
but  in  that  present  in  the  mother's;  that  is  to 
say,  with  the  well-remembered  scratch  stand- 
ing out  vividly.  Possibly,  too,  the  telepathic 
message  had  lain  latent  in  his  subconscious- 
ness  for  days,  only  appearing  as  a  visual  hal- 
lucination at  the  moment  when,  absorbed  in 
the  task  of  writing  out  his  orders,  he  had 
temporarily  lapsed  into  a  state  of  "distraction" 
similar  to  that  of  Dr.  Sidis's  patients,  and  was 
thus  in  a  condition  in  which  the  contents  of 
his  subconsciousness  could  emerge  most  dis- 
tinctly into  his  waking  field  of  vision. 

The  writer  is  well  aware  that  this  explana- 
tion is  hypothetical  —  as,  indeed,  all  such 
explanations  must  be  until  the  laws  of  tele- 
pathic action  are  known  with  greater  certitude. 
But  he  submits  that  we  already  know  enough 
to  warrant  the  application  of  the  telepathic 
hypothesis  to  all  cases  of  this  kind,  and  that 
such  a  course  is  more  rational  and  logical 
than  to  attempt  an  explanation  by  the  crude 
method  of  denying  the  facts,  or  to  refer  the 


The  Nemesis  o]  Spiritism  151 

phenomena  to  the  action  of  "spirits,"  con- 
cerning which,  in  the  very  nature  of  things, 
we  can  know  nothing  at  all.  Very  frequently 
the  telepathic  connection  is  difficult  to  trace 
-  as  in  the  above  instance,  and  in  the  case  of 
the  ticking  heard  by  Mrs.  Da  vies  and  her 
brother  —  and  sometimes  it  may  well  seem 
impossible  to  establish  a  casual  nexus  by 
telepathy.  But  it  is  the  writer's  conviction 
that  once  the  psychologists,  as  a  body,  seri- 
ously attack  the  problem  of  apparitions  and 
auditions,  the  case  for  telepathy  as  against 
spiritism  will  be  definitely  proved. 

Similarly  with  the  mediumistic  messages. 
These  naturally  divide  into  three  classes, 
comprising  statements  of  fact  known  to  the 
medium,  statements  of  fact  not  known  to  the 
medium  but  known  to  some  other  person 
present,  and  statements  of  fact  known  neither 
to  the  medium  nor  any  other  person  present. 
As  regards  the  first  two  classes  even  such  a 
spiritistic  advocate  as  Myers  would  admit  the 
possibility  of  a  telepathic  explanation.  The 
issue  thus  narrows  to  the  "statements  of  fact 
known  neither  to  the  medium  nor  any  other 
person  present."  On  the  one  side,  we  find 
the  spiritist  unreservedly  declining  to  accept 


152  The  Riddle  o]  Personality 

telepathy  as  a  possible  factor  if  no  one  present 
have  knowledge  of  the  facts  related  by  the 
soi-disant  spirit;  on  the  other,  the  telepathist 
affirming  that  if  knowledge  of  the  facts  be 
possessed  by  any  living  person  in  "rapport" 
with  any  person  present  at  the  seance  we 
are  logically  bound  to  accept  the  telepathic 
hypothesis  as  affording  a  complete  and  natural- 
istic explanation.  This  at  once  raises  the  ques- 
tion: Is  telepathy  possible  between  more  than 
two  persons,  the  original  agent  and  the  origi- 
nal percipient? 

In  other  words,  as  stated  by  Dr.  Hudson, 
who,  if  not  the  first  to  formulate  it,  was  in  his 
day  the  most  ardent  champion  of  the  doctrine 
of  telepathic  a  trois,  or  multiple  telepathy:  If 
A.  can,  by  any  means  of  communication,  con- 
vey information  to  B.,  can  B.,  by  the  same 
means,  convey  the  same  information  to  C., 
and  C.  likewise  to  D.  ?  So  far  as  concerns 
physical  means  of  communicating  intelligence 
the  reply  must  obviously  be  in  the  affirmative, 
and  the  argument  by  analogy  would  logically 
indicate  a  similar  reply  in  the  case  of  tele- 
pathy. Fortunately,  we  need  not  rely  solely 
on  the  argument  by  analogy,  for  the  actuality 
of  multiple  telepathy  has  —  at  any  rate  in  the 


The  Nemesis  of  Spiritism  153 

writer's  opinion  —  been  amply  demonstrated 
by  experiment.  Space  permits  only  two  illus- 
trations, one  from  Dr.  Hudson,  the  other 
from  that  versatile  Scotchman,  Andrew  Lang, 
whose  multifarious  interests  include  psychical 
research. 

"I  once  hypnotized  a  lady,"  writes  Dr. 
Hudson,  "and  asked  her  to  describe  my  home, 
which  she  knew  nothing  of.  She  described 
everything  correctly,  even  a  huge  mastiff  lying 
on  a  bearskin  rug  on  the  library  floor.  But 
doubt  was  thrown  upon  her  lucidity  when  she 
described  the  library  desk  as  being  covered 
with  a  white  cloth,  and  said  that  a  lady  was 
sitting  at  the  desk  'doing  something'  which 
she  could  not  clearly  make  out.  As  my  desk 
is  covered  with  black  cloth,  and  as  ladies 
seldom  work  at  it,  I  regarded  the  description 
as  an  effort  at  guessing.  But  on  my  return 
home  I  learned  that  my  wife  had  been  'doing 
something'  with  pulverized  sugar,  and  had 
covered  the  table  with  newspapers  to  prevent 
accidents  to  the  black  cloth.  As  that  was  the 
only  time  in  the  long  history  of  my  library 
desk  that  it  had  been  so  covered  or  so  em- 
ployed, I  cannot  ascribe  the  phenomenon  to 
coincidence.  Nor  can  I  think  of  any  other 


154  The  Riddle  of  Personality 

way  of  explaining  it  than  on  the  theory  of 
telepathie  a  trois."1 

It  may  be  suggested,  as  Dr.  Hudson 
promptly  observes,  that  this  was  a  case  not  of 
multiple  telepathy  but  of  clairvoyance.  In 
point  of  fact,  however,  clairvoyance  is  itself 
explicable  only  on  the  telepathic  hypothesis. 
And,  in  any  event,  clairvoyance  could  not 
possibly  account  for  the  singular  circum- 
stances narrated  by  Mr.  Lang: 

"Again  and  again  Miss  Angus  [a  crystal 
gazer  who  is  well  known  in  England],  sitting 
with  man  or  woman,  described  acquaintances 
of  theirs,  but  not  of  hers,  in  situations  not 
known  to  the  sitters,  but  proved  to  be  true 
to  fact.  ...  In  one  instance  Miss  Angus  de- 
scribed doings,  from  three  weeks  to  a  fort- 
-  night  old,  of  people  in  India,  people  whom 
she  had  never  seen  or  heard  of,  but  who  were 
known  to  her  sitter.  Her  account,  given  on 
a  Saturday,  was  corroborated  by  a  letter  from 
India,  which  arrived  next  day,  Sunday.  In 
another  case  she  described  (about  10  P.  M.) 
what  a  lady,  not  known  to  her,  but  the 
daughter  of  a  matron  present  (who  was  not 
the  sitter),  had  been  doing  about  4  P.M.  on 

1  "The  Evolution  of  the  Soul,"  p.  140. 


The  Nemesis  of  Spiritism  155 

the  same  day.  .  .  .  Again,  sitting  with  the 
lady,  Miss  Angus  described  a  singular  set  of 
scenes  much  in  the  mind,  not  of  her  sitter, 
but  of  a  very  unsympathetic  stranger,  who 
was  reading  a  book  at  the  other  end  of  the 
room.  I  have  tried  every  hypothesis,  normal 
and  not  so  normal,  to  account  for  these  and 
analogous  performances  of  Miss  Angus.  There 
was,  in  the  Indian  and  other  cases,  no  physi- 
cal possibility  of  collusion;  chance  coincidence 
did  not  seem  adequate;  ghosts  were  out  of  the 
question,  so  was  direct  clairvoyance.  .  .  . 
Nothing  remained  for  the  speculative  theo- 
rizer  but  the  idea  of  cross  currents  of  telepathy 
between  Miss  Angus,  a  casual  stranger,  the  sit- 
ters, and  people  far  away,  known  to  the  sitters 
or  the  stranger,  but  unknown  to  Miss  Angus." 

Mr.  Lang  pertinently  adds: 

"Now,  suppose  that  Miss  Angus,  instead 
of  dealing  with  living  people  by  way  of  crystal 
visions,  had  dealt  by  way  of  voice,  or  auto- 
matic handwriting,  and  had  introduced  a  dead 
'communicator.'  Then  she  would  have  been 
on  a  par  with  Mrs.  Piper,  yet  with  no  aid 
from  the  dead."1 

1  "Proceedings  of  the  Society  for  Psychical  Research,"  Vol.  XV, 
pp.  48-49. 


156  The  Riddle  of  Personality 

In  Mrs.  Piper's  case,  as  in  that  of  all 
spiritistic  mediums,  a  dead  communicator  is 
invariably  introduced.  But  it  does  not  neces- 
sarily follow  that  the  medium  is  dishonest 
and  on  the  same  plane  as  those  mediums  who 
cause  household  furniture  to  indulge  in  ex- 
travagant antics.  Hers  is  a  pathological  con- 
dition, the  "trance"  being  in  reality  a  state 
of  autohypnotization,  in  which  the  subliminal 
self  for  the  time  being  has  complete  control 
of  the  bodily  organism  and,  in  accordance 
with  the  principles  revealed  by  hypnotic  ex- 
periment, adopts  and  enacts  any  personality 
suggested  to  it.1  Thus,  accepting  as  valid 
the  hypothesis  of  multiple  telepathy,  all  of 
Mrs.  Piper's  "controls,"  past  and  present, 
are  to  be  regarded  as  mere  subliminal  imper- 
sonations, and  the  facts  transmitted  by  them 
as  having  been  extracted  telepathically  from 
the  sitter's  subconsciousness.2  Exactly  how 
these  facts  were  originally  lodged  in  the  sitters' 
subconsciousness  is  a  matter  of  comparative 
indifference,  and  is,  it  may  readily  be  granted, 
often  impossible  of  ascertainment.  The  im- 

1  The  reader  will  find  this  phase  of  the  subject  well  elaborated 
in  the  writings  of  Dr.  Hudson  and  Mr.  Podmore. 

3  For  a  detailed  discussion  of  spiritistic  objections  to  the  telepathic 
hypothesis  see  Appendix  V. 


The  Nemesis  of  Spiritism  157 

portant  point  is  that  it  is  no  longer  necessary 
to  maintain  an  attitude  of  sneering  incredulity 
or  of  wide-eyed,  open-mouthed  amazement. 
The  "ghost"  of  Sir  Oliver  Lodge's  uncle, 
for  example,  vanishes  into  the  depths  from 
which  it  came,  once  it  be  realized  that  the 
incidents  cited  as  proof  of  personal  identity 
may  be  derived  from  the  subliminal  conscious- 
ness of  Sir  Oliver,  telepathically  conveyed 
thither,  perchance  by  the  subliminal  self  of 
the  surviving  uncle,  perchance  by  the  sub- 
liminal self  of  the  deceased  during  his  earthly 
career,  and  for  the  first  time  revealed  to  Sir 
Oliver's  waking  self  by  the  mediumship,  the 
telepathic  not  spiritistic  mediumship,  of  Mrs. 
Piper.  In  the  same  way  may  we  account  for 
all  the  other  facts  of  her  mediumship  as  set 
forth  in  the  voluminous  reports  of  her  in- 
vestigators. And  as  with  Mrs.  Piper,  so  with 
all  mediums. 

From  the  view  here  set  forth  a  most  im- 
portant conclusion  arises  —  that  not  only  does 
the  survival  of  personality  after  bodily  death 
remain  unproved,  but  that  it  can  never  be 
definitely  proved  by  evidence  scientifically 
acceptable.  Even  the  supreme  test  proposed 
by  Myers  is  nullified  by  the  unescapable 


158  The  Riddle  of  Personality 

operation  of  telepathy.  This  test  consists  in 
the  writing  of  a  message,  which  is  then  sealed, 
intrusted  to  the  keeping  of  a  responsible  per- 
son, and  left  unopened  until,  after  the  writer's 
death,  a  mediumistic  communication  be  re- 
ceived purporting  to  give,  from  the  world 
beyond,  the  contents  of  the  sealed  paper. 
Who  can  prove  that,  during  the  writer's  life- 
time, his  subliminal  self  did  not  transmit  the 
message  telepathically  to  other  subliminal 
selves?  Always  telepathy  confronts  spiritism 
and  in  confronting  conquers. 

It  does  not  follow,  however,  that  the  Society 
for  Psychical  Research  has  expended  its 
efforts  in  vain  and  should  cease  from  endeavor. 
On  the  contrary,  as  the  writer  trusts  these 
chapters  have  shown,  its  labors  have  been 
profitable  in  many  unexpected  ways.  And  if 
it  has  not  proved  survival,  it  has  most  as- 
suredly given  mankind  new  and  forceful 
reasons  for  clinging  to  the  ancient  faith.  This 
it  has  done  by  enlarging  and  ennobling  the 
conception  of  personality  —  a  magnificent  task 
in  prosecuting  which  it  has  received  invalu- 
able, if  unwitting,  assistance  from  the  psy- 
chopathologists.  Unwitting,  because  besides 
usually  eying  the  psychical  researcher  askance 


The  Nemesis  of  Spiritism  159 

the  psychopathologist's  idea  of  the  self,  as 
the  reader  has  already  discovered,  differs  con- 
spicuously from  the  idea  entertained  by  the 
adventurer  into  the  supernormal.  Both  recog- 
nize the  existence  and  operation  of  subcon- 
scious states  of  the  mind,  but  they  speedily 
part  company  when  it  becomes  a  question  of 
interpretation.  As  in  most  controversies,  not 
all  the  right  is  with  one  side  and  all  the  wrong 
with  the  other.  Further,  it  is  possible,  unless 
the  writer  greatly  err,  to  reconcile  their  seem- 
ingly irreconcilable  differences  which,  it  may 
safely  be  affirmed,  have  their  origin  chiefly 
in  the  varying  interests  of  the  investigators. 

The  self,  as  conceived  by  the  psycho- 
pathologist,  is  a  complex,  unstable,  and  won- 
derfully responsive  coordination  of  systems 
of  ideas,  with  a  physiological  basis  in  the 
nervous  system.  Unity  and  continuity  of 
memory  and  consciousness  are  its  prime 
characteristics,  and  these  are  readily  broken 
by  neuron  disturbances.  Thence  results  a 
dissociation  of  greater  or  less  violence,  having 
its  outward  manifestations  in,  it  may  be,  some 
criminal  or  vicious  act  or  tendency,  it  may  be 
in  hysteria,  it  may  even  be  in  the  utter  dis- 
appearance of  the  old  personality  and  the 


160  The  Riddle  of  Personality 

formation  of  a  new  one.  But,  having  defi- 
nitely ascertained  that  the  neuron  disturbance 
is  purely  functional  and  has  not  reached  the 
organic  stage  involving  cellular  destruction, 
it  is  deemed  quite  possible  to  utilize  the  re- 
sponsivity  of  the  self  to  effect  a  reaggregation 
and  a  consequent  inhibition  of  the  baneful 
phenomena.  This  theory  —  which,  as  we 
have  seen,  has  resulted  in  discoveries  of  im- 
mediate curative  value  —  manifestly  regards 
the  self  of  which  we  are  normally  conscious 
as,  so  to  speak,  the  crowning  triumph  of 
neuron  aggregation.  But  in  thus  stating  his 
theoretical  position  the  psychopathologist  over- 
looks an  all-important  fact  which  in  practice 
he  constantly  recognizes. 

This  is  the  fact  that  when  effecting  a  re- 
association  he  directs  his  appeal,  in  the  last 
resort,  not  to  the  old  and  vanished  per- 
sonality, nor  to  the  dissociated,  secondary 
personality,  but  to  a  self  that  persists  beneath 
all  the  changing  phenomena  of  consciousness. 
The  truth  of  this  will  appear  from  the  most 
cursory  survey  of  the  cases  described  in  the 
chapters  dealing  with  the  work  of  the  French 
and  American  psychopathologists.  To  put  it 
otherwise,  there  are  subconscious  states  and  a 


The 


subconsciou 
embracing 
even  to  s 
This  sov 
"sublim" 
who,  fc 
discrirr 
pathol 

At 
of  th 
mall 
Shoe 
ever 
soci 
pie 
of 


lity 


in  this  life 

t  is  incon- 

4  faculties 

>ur  com- 

s  for  no 

h  faith 

ust  be 

shall 

'e,  at 

ture. 


D. 

DA? 

dino 

figure 

ship 

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pro' 

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h 


i*\    distinct 

t    a  social 

^  i  a  man 

n.g    with 

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lip, 

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3r 

>e 


D.  D.  Home  and  Eusapia  Paladino     165 

his  career,  and  notably  on  the  occasion  to 
which  reference  was  made  in  the  opening 
chapter.  At  that  time  (1868)  Home  was  in 
London  giving  seances  to  a  select  coterie  of 
patrons,  including  the  Earl  of  Dunraven  and 
the  Earl  of  Crawford,  who  were  then  respec- 
tively known  as  Viscount  Adare  and  the 
Master  of  Lindsay.  These  two  gentlemen, 
together  with  a  cousin  of  the  former's,  a  Cap- 
tain Wynne,  were  the  witnesses  of  the  sensa- 
tional levitation,  which  Lord  Crawford  thus 
described  in  a  statement  to  the  London 
Dialectical  Society: 

"I  saw  the  levitation  in  Victoria  Street  when 
Home  floated  out  of  the  window.  He  first 
went  into  a  trance  and  walked  about  uneasily; 
he  then  went  into  the  hall.  While  he  was 
away  I  heard  a  voice  whisper  in  my  ear,  'He 
will  go  out  of  one  window  and  in  at  another.' 
I  was  alarmed  and  shocked  at  the  idea  of  so 
dangerous  an  experiment.  I  told  the  com- 
pany what  I  had  heard,  and  we  then  waited 
for  Home's  return.  Shortly  after  he  entered 
the  room.  I  heard  the  window  go  up,  but 
I  could  not  see  it,  for  I  sat  with  my  back  to  it. 
I,  however,  saw  his  shadow  on  the  opposite 
wall ;  he  went  out  of  the  window  in  a  horizontal 


166  Appendix  I 

position,  and  I  saw  him  outside  the  other 
window  (that  is,  the  next  room)  floating  in  the 
air.  It  was  eighty-five  feet  from  the  ground." 

Later,  Lord  Crawford  corrected  this  state- 
ment by  a  letter  in  which  he  explained  that 
the  window  out  of  which  Home  claimed  to 
have  floated  was  not  that  of  the  seance-room 
but  of  the  chamber  adjoining  it,  while  the 
window  of  his  entry  was  that  opening  into 
the  seance-room.  Lord  Dunraven  gave  simi- 
lar testimony,  declaring  that  "we  heard  Home 
go  into  the  next  room,  heard  the  window 
thrown  up,  and  presently  Home  appeared 
standing  upright  outside  our  window;  he 
opened  the  window  and  walked  in  quite 
coolly."  It  also  seems  that  after  his  return 
in  this  seemingly  miraculous  manner,  Home 
asked  Lord  Dunraven  to  close  the  window 
in  the  other  room,  and  thereby  led  up  to  a 
second  sensational  incident,  of  which  Lord 
Dunraven  was  the  only  witness.  To  quote 
from  the  latter  again: 

"I  remarked  [after  closing  the  window  and 
rejoining  the  others]  that  the  window  was  not 
raised  a  foot,  and  that  I  could  not  think  how 
he  [Home]  had  managed  to  squeeze  through. 
He  arose  and  said,  'Come  and  see.'  I  went 


D.  D.  Home  and  Eusapia  Paladino      167 

with  him;  he  told  me  to  open  the  window  as 
it  was  before;  I  did  so;  he  told  me  to  stand 
a  little  distance  off;  he  then  went  through 
the  open  space,  head  first,  quite  rapidly,  his 
body  being  nearly  horizontal  and  apparently 
rigid.  He  came  in  again  feet  foremost,  and 
we  returned  to  the  other  room.  It  was  so 
dark  I  could  not  see  clearly  how  he  was  sup- 
ported outside.  He  did  not  appear  to  grasp,  or 
rest  upon  the  balustrade,  but  rather  to  be  swung 
out  and  in.  Outside  each  window  is  a  small 
balcony  or  ledge  nineteen  inches  deep,  bounded 
by  stone  balustrades  eighteen  inches  high." 

Home's  own  belief  was  that  the  spirits  had 
lifted  him  out  and  in,  and  held  him  supported 
in  the  air;  and  on  the  same  theory  he  would 
also  explain  the  phenomenon  of  elongation, 
to  the  verity  of  which  Lords  Dunraven  and 
Crawford  strongly  testified.  "On  one  occa- 
sion," Lord  Crawford  asserted,  in  a  Dialectical 
Society  paper,  "I  saw  Mr.  Home,  in  a  trance, 
elongated  eleven  inches.  I  measured  him 
standing  up  against  the  wall,  and  marked 
the  place;  not  being  satisfied  with  that,  I  put 
him  in  the  middle  of  the  room  and  placed  a 
candle  in  front  of  him,  so  as  to  throw  a  shadow 
on  the  wall,  which  I  also  marked.  When  he 


168  Appendix  I 

awoke  I  measured  him  again  in  his  natural 
size,  both  directly  and  by  the  shadow,  and 
the  results  were  equal.  I  can  swear  that  he 
was  not  off  the  ground  or  standing  on  tip-toe, 
as  I  had  full  view  of  his  feet,  and,  moreover, 
a  gentleman  present  had  one  of  his  feet  placed 
over  Home's  insteps,  one  hand  on  his  shoulder, 
and  the  other  on  his  side  where  the  false  ribs 
come  near  the  hipbone.  .  .  .  There  was  no 
separation  of  the  vertebrae  of  the  spine;  nor 
were  the  elongations  at  all  like  those  resulting 
from  expanding  the  chest  with  air;  the 
shoulders  did  not  move.  Home  looked  as  if 
he  was  pulled  up  by  the  neck;  the  muscles 
seemed  in  a  state  of  tension.  He  stood  firmly 
upright  in  the  middle  of  the  room,  and  before 
the  elongation  commenced  I  placed  my  foot 
on  his  instep.  I  will  swear  he  never  moved 
his  heels  from  the  ground.  ...  I  once  saw 
him  elongated  horizontally  on  the  ground; 
Lord  Adare  was  present.  Home  seemed  to 
grow  at  both  ends,  and  pushed  myself  and 
Adare  away." 

Another  phenomenon  for  which  Home  be- 
came especially  noted  was  that  known  as  the 
fire  ordeal.  This,  as  its  name  indicates,  in- 
volved his  ability  to  handle  blazing  substances 


D.  D.  Home  and  Eusajria  Paladino     169 

without  injury  to  his  person,  and  that  he 
could  do  so  is  testified  by  numerous  wit- 
nesses, including,  besides  Lords  Crawiord  and 
Dunraven,  the  famous  scientist  Sir  William 
Crookes.  Early  in  1871,  his  interest  having 
been  aroused  by  the  many  stories  then  afloat 
regarding  Home's  alleged  supernormal  powers, 
Sir  William  undertook  an  investigation  of 
his  mediumship,  employing  for  the  purpose 
specially  designed  apparatus  which,  unfor- 
tunately, did  not  exactly  fulfil  the  require- 
ments laid  down  by  Sir  William  himself  and 
quoted  in  the  fifth  chapter  of  the  present 
work.  The  results  obtained,  however,  were 
so  startling  that  Sir  William,  in  reporting  the 
seances  held  with  Home,  did  not  hesitate  to 
affirm  that  the  existence  of  a  hitherto  unknown 
physical  force  had  been  amply  demonstrated. 
Among  much  else,  and  perhaps  chiefly  im- 
pressing him,  were  several  exhibitions  of  the 
fire  ordeal.  On  one  occasion,  Sir  William 
stated,  Home  deliberately  drew  from  a  grate 
fire  several  lumps  of  hot  coal,  including  one 
that  wras  "  bright  red,"  without  sustaining  any 
injury.  On  another  he  took  a  piece  of  "red- 
hot"  charcoal  and  placed  it  on  a  folded  cam- 
bric handkerchief,  fanning  the  charcoal  to  a 


170  Appendix  I 

"white  heat"  with  his  breath,  but  doing  no 
injury  to  the  handkerchief  beyond  burning  a 
minute  hole  in  it.  Afterwards  Sir  William 
tested  the  handkerchief  in  his  laboratory  and 
found  that  it  had  not  been  chemically  treated 
to  withstand  the  action  of  fire.  And,  imme- 
diately following  this  handkerchief  feat,  the 
medium  indulged  in  another  astonishing  ex- 
hibition of  his  peculiar  gift. 

"Mr.  Home,"  Sir  William  Crookes  declared, 
"again  went  to  the  fire,  and  after  stirring  the 
hot  coal  about  with  his  hand,  took  out  a  red- 
hot  piece  nearly  as  big  as  an  orange,  and 
putting  it  on  his  right  hand  covered  it  over 
with  his  left  hand,  so  as  to  almost  completely 
enclose  it,  and  then  blew  into  the  small  fur- 
nace thus  extemporized  until  the  lump  of  char- 
coal was  nearly  white  hot,  and  then  drew  my 
attention  to  the  lambent  flame  which  was  flick- 
ering over  the  coal  and  licking  round  his  fingers ; 
he  fell  on  his  knees,  looked  up  in  a  reverent  man- 
ner, held  up  the  coal  in  front,  and  said, '  Is  not 
God  good ?  Are  not  His  laws  wonderful P'"1 

The  only  rational  explanation  of  such  per- 
formances as  these,  aside  from  unreserved 

1  "Proceedings  of  the  Society  for  Psychical  Research,"  Vol.  VI, 
p.  103. 


D.  D.  Home  and  Eusapia  Paladino     171 

acceptance  of  the  theory  that  they  were  ren- 
dered possible  by  the  action  either  of  dis- 
carnate  spirits  or  of  an  unknown  natural 
force,  is  that  the  spectators  unconsciously 
gave  totally  erroneous  accounts  of  what  oc- 
curred. It  is  out  of  the  question  to  cast 
doubts  on  the  good  faith  of  men  like  Lords 
Crawford  and  Dunraven  and  Sir  William 
Crookes;  but  it  is  not  unreasonable  to  as- 
sume that,  under  the  influence  of  the  at- 
mosphere of  suggestion  with  which  Home, 
like  all  other  physical  mediums,  constantly 
surrounded  his  sitters,  they  were  misled  into 
believing  that  they  had  seen  things  which 
actually  they  had  not  seen  at  all.  Certainly, 
there  are  indications  that  at  least  one  of  the 
three,  the  Earl  of  Crawford,  was  exceedingly 
suggestible ;  and  every  one  who  has  attended  a 
spiritistic  seance  is  aware  of  the  fact  that  the 
very  manner  of  the  medium,  and  his  every 
word  and  look,  are  calculated  to  awaken  and 
intensify  whatever  latent  suggestibility  there 
may  be  in  the  sitter. 

In  fact,  in  Home's  case  it  does  not  seem  at 
all  unlikely  that  the  use  of  hypnotism  was  a 
contributing  factor  in  the  production  of  the 
astounding  phenomena  with  which  he  is 


172  Appendix  I 

credited.  It  is  at  least  significant  that  at  one 
stage  in  his  career  he  was  the  recipient,  from 
an  aged  and  wealthy  widow  who  had  con- 
ceived a  warm  attachment  for  him,  of  gifts 
of  money  amounting  to  the  enormous  sum 
of  $300,000,  a  benefaction  which  an  English 
judge  compelled  him  to  relinquish  on  the 
ground  that  while  no  definite  charge  of  undue 
influence  had  been  brought  home  to  him,  it 
had  not  been  clearly  shown  that  the  lady's 
acts  were  those  of  "pure  volition  unin- 
fluenced." At  the  same  time,  it  will  not  do 
to  class  Home  with  the  vulgar  impostors  and 
adventurers  who  have  done  so  much  to  dis- 
credit spiritism  among  the  thoughtful.  All 
accounts  agree  in  testifying  to  the  evident 
sincerity  of  his  belief  that  he  was  really  in- 
vested with  supernormal  powers.  And  it  is 
inconceivable  that  he  could  so  easily  have 
gained,  and  so  tenaciously  held,  the  confi- 
dence of  men  of  the  Dunraven-Crawford- 
Crookes  stamp,  had  he  been  a  mere  trickster. 
The  probability  is  that  he  deceived  himself 
quite  as  much  as  he  deceived  others  —  that 
the  frauds  which  we  must  believe  he  perpe- 
trated were  committed  bv  him  while  in  a 

* 

dissociated  state.     Such  a  state,  as  the  reader 


D.  D.  Home  and  Eusapia  Paladino     173 

of  the  foregoing  pages  will  understand,  may 
easily  become  habitual ;  and  the  mere  fact  that 
he  gave  his  whole  life  to  the  monotonous 
repetition  of  practically  purposeless  wonder 
workings  is  sufficient  proof  that  he  deviated 
widely  from  normal  men.  It  is,  then,  not 
fair  to  hold  him  strictly  accountable  for  his 
conduct;  but  neither  is  it  wise  to  accept  his 
performances  at  their  face  value  and  find  in 
them  proof  of  the  existence  either  of  super- 
natural or  previously  unknown  but  perfectly 
natural  agencies. 

Precisely  the  same  may  be  said  of  Eusapia 
Paladino,  who  has  recently  been  once  more 
thrust  upon  the  attention  of  the  public  by 
reason  of  a  series  of  seances  given  in  the 
presence  of  a  number  of  eminent  Italian 
scientists,  one  of  whom,  the  psychiatrist  Henry 
Morselli,  has  reached  the  same  conclusion 
at  which  Sir  William  Crookes  arrived  after 
his  investigation  of  Home.  In  Eusapia's  case, 
however,  the  investigators  had  as  a  starting- 
point  the  unpleasant  knowledge  that  she  had 
been  repeatedly  detected  in  fraud  —  even  the 
credulous  continental  enthusiasts  who  lionized 
her  after  the  English  fiasco  being  forced  to 
admit  that  she  often  showed  an  undue  desire 


174  Appendix  I 

to  help  out  the  spirits.  Nevertheless,  it  is 
insisted  by  Professor  Morselli,  as  by  other 
savants  who  have  had  seances  with  her  in  her 
native  land  during  the  past  two  years  (1906 
and  1907),  that  fraud  will  not  explain  all  the 
phenomena  produced  in  her  presence. 

Reading  the  evidence,  however,  as  given 
by  Professor  Morselli  and  his  associates  in 
recent  issues  of  the  Annales  des  Sciences 
Psychiques,  it  is  hard  to  understand  just  why 
this  judgment  should  have  been  reached. 
The  old,  old  story  is  told  —  a  dimly  lighted 
room,  a  curtained  cabinet,  dancing  chairs 
and  tables,  and  the  flight  of  sundry  articles 
of  furniture  through  the  air,  with  knockings 
and  pinchings  and  occasional  fugitive  glimpses 
of  spirit  faces  and  heads  and  hands.  Once 
in  a  while,  but  comparatively  seldom,  a  novel 
manifestation  would  be  vouchsafed.  Thus,  at 
one  seance  a  metronome  was  set  in  motion 
while  the  spectators  —  who,  it  is  asserted, 
could  see  the  medium  distinctly  in  the  "semi- 
obscurity"  to  which  their  eyes  had  become 
accustomed  —  failed  to  perceive  a  hand  in 
contact  with  the  instrument.  Yet,  as  one 
of  the  onlookers  naively  remarked  --" Met- 
ronomes do  not  have  the  habit  of  starting  and 
stopping  themselves." 


D.  D.  Home  and  Eusapia  Paladino     175 

At  the  same  seance,  or  rather  after  it  was 
officially  at  an  end,  a  "large  and  heavy"  stool 
paraded  across  the  room  towards  Eusapia, 
and  cleverly  dodged  an  inquisitive  investi- 
gator who  sought  to  intercept  it.  At  another 
seance  an  invisible  hand  grasped  a  dyna- 
mometer, carried  it  into  the  cabinet,  and  re- 
turned it  with  the  index  indicating  a  pressure 
"such  as  only  the  hand  of  a  strong  man  could 
make."  Again,  the  curtain  of  the  cabinet 
bulged  out,  outlining  in  its  folds  the  form  of  a 
human  being,  and  when  a  sitter  placed  his 
hand  at  the  spot  where  the  mouth  of  the  hid- 
den spirit  would  presumably  be,  he  received  a 
very  material  bite  on  his  thumb.  As  before, 
the  medium  was  as  plainly  visible  outside  the 
cabinet  as  the  "semi-obscurity"  would  per- 
mit. Suspiciously  enough,  however,  Professor 
Morselli  at  a  later  seance  caught  her  in  the 
act  of  furtively  stretching  out  her  hand  to 
pick  up  a  trumpet  which,  the  next  instant, 
flew  from  the  table  and  disappeared  into  the 
cabinet  amid  universal  amazement. 

The  further  one  reads  the  greater  becomes 
one's  astonishment  that  the  genuineness  of 
the  majority  of  the  phenomena  is  vouched 
for  by  such  really  reputable  men  of  science 


176  Appendix  I 

as  Professor  Morselli  and  his  fellow  investi- 
gators. They  do  not,  it  is  true,  accept  the 
spiritistic  interpretation.  But  they  do  incline 
openly  to  the  belief  that  in  Eusapia  Paladino 
the  world  possesses  a  medium  for  the  operation 
of  a  secret  force  capable  of  overcoming  the 
laws  of  nature  so  far  as  they  are  understood 
to-day.  They  would  explain  away  her  fraud 
and  chicanery  on  the  ground  that  while  in  the 
trance  state  she  is  not  really  herself,  but  is 
at  the  mercy  of  an  irresponsible  secondary 
personality  —  an  explanation  with  which  the 
present  writer  is  in  agreement,  and  which  is 
quite  satisfactory  if  the  logical  addendum  be 
made,  viz.,  that  while  in  this  secondary  state 
it  is  altogether  probable  Eusapia  cheats  all 
the  time,  and  that  her  successful  phenomena 
are  nothing  more  than  tricks  performed  with 
a  cunning  which  defies  detection.  In  such 
matters  the  attitude  assumed  by  the  Society 
for  Psychical  Research  is  the  only  safe  one. 
When  the  evidence  proffered  is  of  such  a 
nature  that  its  verity  depends  on  the  close  and 
unfailing  scrutiny  of  the  human  eye,  a  single 
conviction  of  fraud  should  be  sufficient  to 
deprive  the  offending  medium  of  all  right  to 
further  scientific  investigation. 


APPENDIX  II 

THE  CENSUS  OF  HALLUCINATIONS 

IN  addition  to  collecting  from  all  parts  of 
the  world  information  that  might  throw  light 
on  the  more  obscure  operations  of  the  human 
mind  and  the  possibility  of  discarnate  spirits 
communicating  with  spirits  still  in  the  flesh, 
the  Society  for  Psychical  Research  undertook 
in  1889  a  statistical  inquiry  into  hallucinations. 
This  was  begun  with  only  modest  expectations 
of  securing  data  that  would  warrant  definite 
statements  regarding  the  extent  and  cause  of 
sensory  deceptions;  and  when,  after  several 
years'  labor,  the  statistics  were  analyzed,  it 
was  found  that  results  of  far-reaching  impor- 
tance had  been  obtained. 

The  inquiry,  which  may  fairly  be  described 
as  a  census,  was  under  the  direction  of  a 
special  committee  consisting  of  Professor  and 
Mrs.  Henry  Sidgwick,  F.  W.  H.  Myers  and 
his  brother  Dr.  A.  T.  Myers,  Frank  Podmore, 
and  Miss  Alice  Johnson.  These  enlisted  the 

177 


178  Appendix  II 

assistance  of  over  four  hundred  collectors,  or 
enumerators,  each  of  whom  was  instructed 
to  put  the  following  question  to  twenty-five 
adults,  chosen  without  reference  to  the  proba- 
bility of  receiving  an  affirmative  answer: 

"Have  you  ever,  when  believing  yourself 
to  be  completely  awake,  had  a  vivid  impression 
of  seeing  or  being  touched  by  a  living  being 
or  inanimate  object,  or  of  hearing  a  voice; 
which  impression,  so  far  as  you  could  dis- 
cover, was  not  due  to  any  external  physical 
cause?" 

The  enumerators  were  further  directed  to 
record  the  answer  "No"  and  the  answer 
"Yes"  with  equal  scrupulousness,  and  to 
obtain  if  possible  a  written  account  of  the 
hallucination  whenever  an  affirmative  answer 
had  to  be  recorded.  They  were  also  instructed 
to  exclude  from  consideration  all  hallucina- 
tions obviously  connected  with  insanity,  de- 
lirium, or  sleep. 

Under  these  conditions  some  17,000  per- 
sons were  questioned,  mostly  acquaintances 
of  the  collectors  but  for  all  practical  purposes 
chosen  at  random;  and  after  deducting  hal- 
lucinations of  the  character  just  mentioned 
there  remained  1684  affirmative  answers,  rep- 


The  Census  of  Hallucinations        179 

resenting  almost  ten  per  cent  of  the  whole. 
To  make  sure  that  this  corresponded  to  a 
true  proportion,  the  committee  instituted  a 
comparison  between  the  collectors'  statistics 
and  figures  derived  from  inquiries  made  by 
the  committee  themselves  among  various  unse- 
lected  groups  of  persons.  Curiously  enough, 
the  percentage  of  affirmative  answers  received 
from  these  groups  exceeded  those  of  the  main 
investigation,  and  the  warrantable  inference 
was  made  that  the  latter  had  not  exaggerated 
the  situation. 

What  this  meant  was  a  complete  overthrow 
of  the  long-standing  belief  that  hallucinations 
were  inevitably  associated  with  some  malady 
-  a  belief  which  found  its  extreme  expression 
in,  for  instance,  Lord  Brougham's  endeavor 
to  establish  a  law  making  the  existence  of  a 
hallucination  proof  positive  of  insanity.  So 
far  from  being  of  rare  occurrence  hallucina- 
tions, as  the  report  on  the  society's  census 
made  very  clear,  are  frequently  experienced, 
and  by  persons  of  an  entirely  normal  type. 
Even  more  important,  from  the  standpoint  of 
psychical  research  proper,  was  the  discovery 
that  many  hallucinatory  visions  of  absent 
friends  and  relatives  were  said  to  have  been 


180  Appendix  II 

experienced  within  one  to  twelve  hours  after 
the  death  of  the  person  seen.  Out  of  a 
total  of  350  recognized  apparitions  of  living 
persons  no  fewer  than  65  were  reported  as 
being  thus  coincidental.  For  various  reasons, 
fully  stated  in  the  report  which  will  be  found 
in  the  tenth  volume  of  the  society's  "Proceed- 
ings," 33  of  the  alleged  death  coincidences 
were  rejected,  however,  leaving  a  total  of 
32  cases  deemed  beyond  suspicion. 

At  the  same  time,  it  was  appreciated  that 
the  percipient  of  a  hallucination  was  quite 
liable  to  forget  all  about  it  in  the  lapse  of  time, 
and  that  it  was  therefore  not  unlikely  that  the 
total  of  350  recognized  apparitions  of  living 
persons  did  not  represent  the  actual  number 
of  such  apparitions  seen.  Indeed,  tabular 
arrangement  of  the  reported  hallucinations 
showed  that  while  the  number  was  compara- 
tively large  for  the  most  recent  years,  it  de- 
creased rapidly  as  the  years  became  remote 
—at  ten  years'  distance  being  only  half  what 
it  was  for  the  nearest  year.  This,  and  other 
considerations,  led  to  the  conclusion  that  in 
order  to  arrive  at  the  true  number  of  hal- 
lucinations experienced  the  number  reported 
must  be  multiplied  by  four.  On  the  other 


The  Census  of  Hallucinations        181 

hand,  there  was  far  less  probability  that  a 
hallucinatory  death  coincidence  would  be  for- 
gotten. Leaving  the  total  number  of  death 
coincidences  untouched,  therefore,  the  com- 
mittee increased  the  total  number  of  recog- 
nized apparitions  by  making  the  necessary 
correction  for  forgetfulness,  and  obtained  as 
a  final  result  a  proportion  of  one  death  coin- 
cidence in  every  43  cases. 

Taking  the  annual  death  rate  for  England 
and  Wales  at  19.15  per  1000,  as  given  by  the 
registrar-general's  report  for  the  year  1890, 
it  was  calculated  that  the  probability  that  a 
given  person  would  die  on  a  given  day  was 
about  one  in  19,000  —  or  that,  in  other  words, 
out  of  every  19,000  apparitions  of  living  per- 
sons there  should  be,  by  chance  alone,  one 
death  coincidence.  But  the  actual  proportion 
established  by  the  figures  of  the  census  was 
equivalent  to  about  440  in  19,000,  or  440  times 
the  probable  number,  and  this  when  the  cal- 
culation was  based  only  on  death  coincidences 
occurring  within  from  one  to  twelve  hours 
of  the  time  of  death.  Actually,  a  large  frac- 
tion of  the  32  cases  accepted  as  sufficiently 
authenticated  represented  hallucinations  ex- 
perienced within  an  hour  of  the  time  of 


182  Appendix  II 

death,  and  for  these  the  improbability  of 
chance  occurrence  was  obviously  12  times 
greater.  With  such  a  wide  margin  of  differ- 
ence the  committee  felt  justified  in  declaring: 
"Between  deaths  and  the  apparition  of  the 
dying  person  a  connection  exists  which  is  not 
due  to  chance." 

What,  then,  is  the  connection?  To  quote 
from  F.  WT.  H.  Myers's  explanatory  comment 
on  the  report: 

"The  explanation  of  chance  coincidence 
being  thus  put  out  of  court,  the  opponent  of  a 
telepathic  or  other  supernormal  explanation 
must  maintain  one  of  three  other  hypotheses. 
(1)  He  may  assert  that  the  coincidences  have 
been  exaggerated  to  a  much  greater  extent 
than  the  committee  allowed  for;  which  argu- 
ment can  only  be  met  by  reference  to  the 
evidence  —  given  fully  in  the  report  —  for 
the  various  cases.  (2)  He  may  suppose  that 
they  were  specially  sought  after  by  the  col- 
lectors and  illegitimately  introduced  into  the 
collection  to  a  much  larger  extent  in  propor- 
tion to  non-coincidental  cases  than  was  al- 
allowed  for.  Our  reply  would  be  that  in  26 
of  the  total  number  of  death  coincidences, 
the  collectors  reported  that  they  did  not  know 


The  Census  of  Hallucinations        183 

of  the  case  beforehand,  and  therefore  could 
not  have  selected  it  to  include.  Sixteen  of 
these  cases  are  printed  in  the  report,  so  that 
the  evidence  for  them  can  be  studied.  (3) 
Admitting  that  death  coincidences  really  exist, 
and  are  too  frequent  to  be  attributed  to 
chance,  it  may  be  argued  that  the  causal 
connection  between  hallucination  and  death 
is  not  telepathic,  but  consists  in  a  condition 
favorable  to  hallucination  being  produced  in 
the  percipient  in  some  normal  way  by  the  cir- 
cumstances of  the  case;  for  instance,  by 
anxiety  about  the  dying  person.  There  is 
some  evidence  in  the  report  that  mental 
tension,  anxiety,  or  other  emotional  causes 
are  to  some  extent  favorable  to  hallucinations, 
and  if  a  hallucination  occurs,  its  form  is  likely 
to  be  determined  by  whatever  subject  the 
percipient  is  thinking  of.  But  such  a  cause 
could  only  produce  a  death  coincidence  if  the 
percipient  were  aware  of  the  dying  person's 
condition,  and  in  many  of  the  cases  reported 
(ten  of  which  are  printed  in  the  report)  the 
percipient  had  not  even  heard  of  the  dying 
person's  illness.  It  was  therefore  impossible 
that  anxiety  should  have  caused  the  halluci- 
nation in  those  cases,  and  even  in  cases  where 


184  Appendix  II 

some  degree  of  anxiety  existed,  the  closeness 
of  the  coincidence  is  inadequately  accounted 
for  by  it.  ... 

"I  must  add  that  while  this  argument  from 
statistics  and  percentages  —  capable  as  it  is 
at  once  of  accurate  estimation  and  indefinite 
extension  —  constitutes  technically  the  strong- 
est support  of  the  thesis  of  causal  connection 
between  deaths  and  apparitions,  it  is  yet  by 
no  means  the  only  support,  nor  even  the  most 
practically  convincing.  Those  deaths  and 
those  apparitions  are  not  mere  simple  momen- 
tary facts  —  as  though  we  were  dealing  with 
two  clocks  which  struck  simultaneously.  Each 
is  a  complex  occurrence,  and  the  correspond- 
ence is  often  much  more  than  a  mere  coin- 
cidence of  time  alone.  Sometimes,  indeed, 
the  alleged  coincidence  is  so  detailed  and 
intimate  that,  if  the  evidence  for  a  single  case 
is  fully  believed,  that  case  is  enough  to  carry 
conviction."  * 

Myers  himself,  like  all  others  who  see  in  the 
spiritistic  hypothesis  the  only  satisfactory  ex- 
planation of  the  data  thus  laboriously  gathered, 
would  insist  that  the  hallucinations  reported 

1  "  Human  Personality  and  Its  Survival  of  Bodily  Death,"  Vol.  I, 
pp.  573-4. 


The  Census  o]  Hallucinations        185 

were  proof  of  the  survival  of  personality. 
But,  as  the  writer  hopes  he  has  made  suffi- 
ciently clear  in  the  sixth  chapter  of  this  book, 
the  impossibility  of  adducing  evidence  that 
the  hallucinations  were  not  telepathically  pro- 
duced from  the  subconscious  mind  of  the  dying 
persons  before  they  passed  from  earth,  and 
remained  submerged  in  the  subconscious  mind 
of  the  percipients,  practically  vitiates  the 
argument  from  spirit  influence.  Whatever 
the  causal  connection,  however,  it  may  hardly 
be  doubted  that  the  statistics  of  this  unique 
census  have  a  momentous  bearing  on  the 
question  of  the  existence  and  operation  of 
mental  faculties  other  than  those  employed 
in  the  routine  of  life. 


APPENDIX  III 

HYPNOTISM  AND  THE  DRINK  HABIT 

PERHAPS  no  more  urgent  problem  confronts 
the  medical  world  than  the  cure  of  alcoholism, 
its  importance  lying  in  the  preponderating 
role  played  by  the  drink  habit  in  the  weaken- 
ing of  the  race  as  well  as  the  destruction  of  the 
afflicted  individual.  All  authorities  unite  in 
declaring  that  alcoholism  holds  a  foremost 
place  among  the  direct  causes  of  insanity. 
The  psychiatrist  Morel  rated  it  next  to  he- 
redity in  this  respect;  and  indirectly  it  still 
further  extends  its  baneful  influence  by  trans- 
mitting to  the  posterity  of  drunkards  an  in- 
herited taint  which  may  find  expression  in  one 
or  more  of  many  forms — true  insanity,  idiocy, 
epilepsy,  hysteria,  future  inebriety,  criminality, 
etc.  Added  to  this  is. the  economic  loss,  to 
say  nothing  of  the  personal  suffering  entailed 
on  the  dipsomaniac  himself  and  his  relatives. 
It  is,  of  course,  out  of  the  question  to  expect 
that  a  means  will  be  found  for  the  total  eradi- 

186 


Hypnotism  and  the  Drink  Habit     187 

cation  of  drunkenness;  but  it  is  imperative 
to  check  drink's  ravages  so  far  as  is  humanly 
possible,  and  for  this  purpose  no  method  of 
treatment  as  yet  discovered  seems  to  hold 
such  promise  as  the  hypnotic. 

For  some  reason,  not  definitely  ascertained, 
dipsomaniacs  are  peculiarly  susceptible  to 
hypnotism,  at  times  responding  to  the  cura- 
tive suggestions  of  the  operator  with  almost 
incredible  readiness.  Such  has  been  the  ex- 
perience of  all  psychopathologists,  from  the 
founders  of  the  Paris  and  Nancy  schools  of 
hypnotism  to  the  most  recent  practitioners. 
In  this,  it  may  incidentally  be  noted,  dipso- 
maniacs differ  markedly  from  victims  of  the 
morphine  and  cocaine  habit.  The  cure  of 
the  latter  is  very  difficult  and  often  impossible, 
their  entire  system  having  seemingly  become 
so  demoralized  as  to  extinguish  even  the 
recuperative  energy  of  the  subliminal  self. 
But  in  the  case  of  dipsomaniacs,  given  a  fair 
family  history  and  a  habit  of  not  too  long  a 
standing,  the  hypnotic  method  holds  out  every 
promise  of  a  cure. 

There  is  hope,  in  fact,  for  even  the  con- 
firmed drunkard,  with  a  black  heredity  and  a 
record  of  years  of  indulgence.  One  of  Dr. 


188  Appendix  III 

Sidis's  most  striking  cures  was  that  of  a  man 
deriving  an  alcoholic  tendency  from  both  his 
father's  and  his  mother's  side,  and  so  besotted 
that  Dr.  Sidis  considered  the  case  almost 
hopeless.  But,  to  his  amazement,  he  found 
a  subliminal  responsiveness  of  such  vigor  that 
this  drunkard  by  inheritance  was  enabled  to 
take  his  proper  place  in  society  sooner  than 
many  others  on  whom  the  vice  apparently 
had  a  weaker  hold.  Similarly,  Dr.  J.  Milne 
Bramwell,  a  pioneer  English  practitioner,  re- 
ports a  complete  cure  in  the  case  of  a  man 
who,  with  a  bad  family  history,  averaged  a 
spree  a  week  for  several  years;  also  of  one 
patient  who  had  had  three  attacks  of  delirium 
tremens  and  seven  of  epilepsy  —  probably, 
however,  not  true  epilepsy  but  hystero-epi- 
lepsy.  Another  case  of  Dr.  Bramwell's,  re- 
ported by  him  in  the  June,  1900,  issue  of  the 
"Proceedings  of  the  Society  for  the  Study  of 
Inebriety,"  may  advantageously  be  described 
in  his  own  words: 

"Mrs.  C.,  aged  forty-four,  November  23, 
1894.  Family  history  of  alcoholism.  At  the 
age  of  twenty  the  patient  began  to  have 
frequent  hysterical  attacks,  and  for  these 
stimulants  were  prescribed  in  rather  large 


Hypnotism  and  the  Drink  Habit     189 

quantities.  Two  years  later  she  began  to 
take  stimulants  in  excess,  but  did  not  do  so 
frequently,  and  rarely  became  intoxicated, 
From  thirty-two  to  thirty-six  she  was  an 
abstainer;  then  commenced  taking  stimulants 
again,  and  attacks  of  genuine  dipsomania 
soon  appeared.  The  patient  suffered  from 
an  almost  constant  craving  for  alcohol.  She 
was,  however,  a  woman  of  culture,  refine- 
ment, and  high  principle,  devoted  to  her 
husband  and  children,  and  the  idea  of  giving 
way  to  drink  was  in  every  way  abhorrent  to 
her.  She  therefore  struggled  with  all  her 
might  against  the  temptation;  resisted  it  suc- 
cessfully for  a  week  or  two,  then  the  craving 
became  irresistible,  and  a  drinking  bout  fol- 
lowed. I  hypnotized  Mrs.  C.  thirty  times, 
from  November  23,  1894,  to  February  14, 
1895.  From  the  very  beginning  of  the  treat- 
ment she  abstained  from  stimulants,  but  the 
craving,  although  much  diminished,  did  not 
entirely  disappear  for  some  months.  Up  to 
the  present  date  there  has  been  absolutely 
no  relapse." 

Thus,  no  matter  what  the  condition  of 
the  dipsomaniac,  it  seems  "never  too  late  to 
mend";  although  the  conservative  psycho- 


190  Appendix  III 

pathologist  does  not  pretend  that  in  every 
case  a  permanent  cure  can  be  effected.  Still, 
the  percentage  of  permanent  cures,  as  derived 
from  the  records  of  the  cases  treated  by 
Drs.  Sidis,  Bramwell,  and  others,  is  astonish- 
ingly high.  And,  what  is  of  no  small  im- 
portance to  most  people,  the  treatment  may 
be  given  without  interruption  to  the  patient's 
business. 


HYPNOIDIZATION 

IN  an  interesting  series  of  articles  contributed 
to  the  Boston  Medical  and  Surgical  Journal 
(issues  of  March  14  to  April  11,  1907),  Dr. 
Boris  Sidis  gives  an  outline  account  of  his 
latest  psychopathological  investigations,  and 
incidentally  explains  the  method  of  hypnoidi- 
zation  developed  and  utilized  by  him.  It  is 
quoted  here  for  the  purpose  of  affording  the 
reader  an  understanding  of  the  nature  of  the 
hypnoidic  state  and  the  means  by  which  it  is 
produced. 

"In  order  to  get  at  the  dissociated  subcon- 
scious states,"  writes  Dr.  Sidis,  "I  have  for 
many  years  employed  a  method  which  gives 
uniformly  excellent  results.  I  wish  to  attract 
the  attention  of  the  medical  profession  to 
this  method  of  hypnoidization,  as  it  is  not  only 
of  theoretical  importance  for  the  purposes  of 
psychopathological  analysis,  but  it  is  possibly 
of  still  greater  value  for  practical  therapeutic 


191 


192  Appendix  IV 

purposes.  This  is  all  the  more  requisite,  as 
recently  some  medical  men  have  confused 
the  method  of  hypnoidization  with  that  of 
Breuer  and  Freud  on  the  one  hand  and  with 
Janet's  method  of  distraction  on  the  other. 
The  three  methods  are  radically  different  and 
are  based  on  widely  different  principles.  The 
nature  of  the  states  obtained  by  the  method 
of  hypnoidization,  as  well  as  the  character  of 
the  results,  differ  fundamentally  from  those 
of  the  other  two  methods.  .  .  . 

"It  is  on  [the]  general  laws  and  nature  of 
relation  of  the  personal  consciousness  to  the 
subconscious  that  I  have  based  my  method 
of  hypnoidization.  In  order  to  reach  the 
dissociated  mental  states  we  have  to  lay  bare 
the  subconscious,  and  this  can  be  effected  by 
the  conditions  requisite  for  the  induction  of 
normal  or  abnormal  suggestibility,  conditions 
which  bring  about  a  disaggregation  of  con- 
sciousness. In  cases,  therefore,  where  hypno- 
sis is  not  practicable  and  the  subconscious 
has  to  be  reached,  we  can  effect  a  disaggrega- 
tion of  consciousness  and  thus  produce  an 
allied  subconscious  state  by  putting  the  patient 
under  the  conditions  of  normal  suggestibility: 
fixation  of  attention,  distraction,  monotony, 


Hypnoidization  193 

limitation  of  the  voluntary  movements,  limita- 
tion of  the  field  of  vision,  inhibition,  and  im- 
mediate execution. 

"This  is  precisely  what  the  method  of  hyp- 
noidization  consists  in.  The  patient  is  asked 
to  close  his  eyes  and  keep  as  quiet  as  possible, 
without,  however,  making  any  special  effort 
to  put  himself  in  such  a  state.  He  is  then 
asked  to  attend  to  some  stimulus  such  as  read- 
ing or  singing  (or  to  the  monotonous  beats 
of  a  metronome).  When  the  reading  is  over, 
the  patient,  with  his  eyes  shut,  is  asked  to 
repeat  it  and  tell  wrhat  comes  into  his  mind 
during  the  reading,  or  during  the  repetition, 
or  immediately  after  it.  Sometimes  the  pa- 
tient is  simply  asked  to  tell  the  nature  of 
ideas  and  images  that  have  entered  his  mind. 
This  should  be  carried  out  in  a  very  quiet 
place,  and  the  room,  if  possible,  should  be 
darkened  so  as  not  to  disturb  the  patient  and 
bring  him  out  of  the  state  in  which  he  has 
been  put. 

"As  modifications  of  the  same  method, 
the  patient  is  asked  to  fixate  his  attention  on 
some  object  while  at  the  same  time  listening 
to  the  beats  of  a  metronome;  the  patient's 
eyes  are  then  closed;  he  is  to  keep  very  quiet, 


194  Appendix  IV 

while  the  metronome  or  some  other  monoto- 
nous stimulus  is  kept  on  going.  After  some 
time,  when  his  respirations  and  pulse  are 
found  somewhat  lowered,  and  he  declares 
that  he  thinks  of  nothing  in  particular,  he  is 
asked  to  concentrate  his  attention  on  a  sub- 
ject closely  relating  to  the  symptoms  of  the 
malady  or  to  the  submerged  subconscious 
states. 

"The  patient,  again,  may  be  asked  to  keep 
very  quiet,  to  move  or  change  position  as 
little  as  possible,  and  is  then  required  to  look 
steadily  into  a  glass  of  water  on  a  white  back- 
ground, with  a  light  shining  through  the  con- 
tents of  the  glass;  a  mechanism  producing 
monotonous  sounds  is  set  going,  and  after  a 
time,  when  the  patient  is  observed  to  have 
become  unusually  quiet,  he  is  asked  to  tell 
what  he  thinks  in  regard  to  a  subject  relating 
to  his  symptoms.  He  may  be  asked  to  write 
the  stray  ideas  down,  if  speaking  aloud  dis- 
turbs the  induced  states  favorable  to  the 
emergence  of  the  dissociated  mental  states. 

"In  some  cases  it  is  sufficient  to  put  the 
patient  in  a  very  quiet  condition;  have  his 
eyes  shut  and  command  him  to  think  hard  of 
the  particular  dissociated  states.  This  mostly 


Hypnoidization  195 

succeeds  in  the  case  of  patients  who  are  also 
somnambulists. 

"In  short,  the  method  of  hypnoidization  is 
not  necessarily  fixed,  it  admits  of  many  modi- 
fications; it  is  highly  pliable  and  can  be  ad- 
justed to  the  type  of  case  as  well  as  adapted 
to  the  idiosyncrasies  of  the  patient's  individu- 
ality. This  method  of  hypnoidization  has 
nothing  in  common  with  Freud's  method,  nor 
with  Janet's  method  of  distraction.  Freud's 
method  is  based  on  the  course  of  normal 
associative  activity,  while  the  method  of 
hypnoidization  is  based  essentially  on  the 
production  of  dissociation  by  inducing  a 
slight  state  of  disaggregation  of  consciousness. 
From  Janet's  method  of  distraction,  that  of 
hypnoidization  differs  fundamentally  in  that 
it  is  not  at  all  based  on  distraction,  but  on  the 
conditions  of  monotony,  and  sensori-motor 
limitations.  In  contrast  to  Janet's  method 
of  distraction,  hypnoidization  may  be  charac- 
terized as  the  method  of  monotony. 

"What  do  we  produce  by  the  method  of 
hypnoidization  ?  We  produce  a  peculiar  state 
which,  for  the  lack  of  a  better  term,  I  desig- 
nate as  'hypnoidal.'  What  is  the  hypnoidal 
state?  The  hypnoidal  state  is  essentially  a 


196  Appendix  IV 

borderland  state.  The  subject  is  apparently 
awake  and  seems  to  be  in  full  possession  of 
all  his  powers,  and  still  he  is  more  closely  in 
touch  with  the  dissociated  experiences  than 
he  is  otherwise  in  the  full  waking  state.  Per- 
haps the  subwaking  state  would  possibly  be 
an  apt  term  for  the  hypnoidal  condition. 
The  subject  seems  to  hover  between  the  con- 
scious and  the  subconscious,  somewhat  in  the 
same  way  as  in  the  half-drowsy  condition  we 
hover  between  wakefulness  and  sleep.  The 
hypnoidal  state  is  not  a  stable  condition;  it 
keeps  on  fluctuating  from  moment  to  moment; 
now  falling  more  deeply  into  a  subconscious 
condition  in  which  outlived  experiences  are 
easily  aroused,  or  again  rising  to  the  level  of 
waking  states.  In  such  conditions  the  patient 
often  tells  you,  'something  has  come  —  but 
it  is  gone.'  The  hypnoidal  state  has  changed, 
it  has  become  lighter,  and  the  dissociated 
moments  have  become  again  submerged. 
There  is  a  constant  struggle  going  on  in  the 
hunting  out  of  the  stray  dissociated  systems. 
The  state  brought  about  by  hypnoidization  is 
essentially  a  transient,  evanescent,  mental 
disaggregation  of  the  personal  consciousness 
from  the  reflex  subconsciousness.  The  hypnoi- 


Hypnoidization  197 

dal  state  borders  closely  on  light  hypnosis; 
and  still  it  is  not  exactly  a  hypnotic  state  and 
may  be  regarded  as  an  intermediate  state. 
In  a  series  of  experiments  on  the  nature  of 
sleep  of  lower  animals  as  well  as  of  infants 
and  adults,  now  being  carried  on  by  me  at 
the  physiological  laboratory  of  Harvard  Medi- 
cal School  and  in  my  own  laboratory,  the 
facts  tend  to  indicate  that  the  hypnoidal  state 
is  intermediary  between  hypnosis  and  sleep 
on  the  one  hand  and  the  waking  state  on  the 
other.  .  .  . 

"The  hypnoidal  state  may  either  lead  to 
sleep  or  to  hypnosis.  The  close  relationship 
of  the  hypnoidal  state  and  of  hypnosis  is  some- 
times forcibly  brought  to  the  attention  of  the 
experimenter.  Some  patients  while  in  the 
hypnoidal  state  are  observed  to  become  un- 
usually quiet,  less  talkative,  become  relaxed, 
and  after  a  time  a  distinctly  cataleptic  con- 
dition of  the  extremities  may  be  observed. 
The  patient  has  apparently  passed  into  hyp- 
nosis. In  most  of  the  cases  the  hypnosis 
is  of  very  brief  duration,  while  in  a  few  cases 
the  hypnosis  may  become  lasting  [Dr.  Sidis 
means  lasting  throughout  that  particular  treat- 
ment] and  deep.  On  the  other  hand,  in  many 


198  Appendix  IV 

cases  the  subject  falls  into  a  sleeping  state 
without  as  much  as  touching  on  hypnosis.  .  .  . 
The  subwaking  hypnoidal  state,  like  sleep 
and  hypnosis,  may  be  of  various  depth  and 
duration;  it  may  range  from  the  fully  awaking 
consciousness  and  again  may  closely  approach 
and  even  merge  into  sleep  or  hypnosis.  The 
same  patient  may  at  various  times  reach  dif- 
ferent levels,  and  hence  subconscious  experi- 
ences which  are  inaccessible  at  one  time  may 
become  revealed  at  some  subsequent  time, 
when  the  patient  happens  to  go  into  a  deeper 
level  of  the  hypnoidal  state. 

"On  account  of  the  instability  of  the  hyp- 
noidal state,  and  because  of  the  continous 
fluctuation  and  variation  of  the  depth  of  its 
level,  the  subconscious  dissociated  experiences 
come  up  in  bits  and  scraps,  and  often  may 
lack  the  sense  of  familiarity  and  recognition. 
The  patient  often  loses  the  train  of  subcon- 
scious associations;  there  is  a  constant  struggle 
to  maintain  this  highly  unstable  hypnoidal 
state,  and  one  has  again  and  again  to  return 
to  the  same  subconscious  train  started  into 
activity  for  a  brief  interval  of  time.  One 
must  pick  his  way  among  streams  of  disturb- 
ing associations  before  the  dissociated  sub- 


Hypnoidization  199 

conscious  experiences  can  be  synthetized  into 
a  whole,  reproducing  representatively  the 
original  experience  [for  example,  the  shock 
which  caused  Mr.  R's  hands  to  tremble] 
that  has  given  rise  to  the  whole  train  of  symp- 
toms. The  hypnoidal  state  may  sometimes 
reproduce  the  original  experience  which,  at 
first  struggling  up  in  a  broken,  distorted  form 
and  finally  becoming  synthetized,  gives  rise 
to  a  full  attack.  The  symptoms  of  the 
malady  turn  out  to  be  portions,  bits,  and  chips 
of  past  experiences  which  have  become  dis- 
sociated, subconscious,  giving  rise  to  a  dis- 
aggregated subconsciousness.  The  method  of 
hypnoidization  and  the  hypnoidal  states  in- 
duced by  it  enable  us  to  trace  the  history  and 
etiology  of  the  symptoms  and  also  to  effect 
a  synthesis  and  a  cure." 


APPENDIX  V 

SPIRITISM  vs.  TELEPATHY 

IN  rejecting  the  telepathic  and  accepting 
the  spiritistic  hypothesis  as  the  only  one  which 
adequately  explains  the  case  of  Mrs.  Piper, 
both  Dr.  Hodgson  and  Professor  Hyslop  have 
stated  in  detail  the  considerations  influencing 
them  to  adopt  this  view.  Their  statements 
constitute  a  most  searching  criticism  of  the 
telepathic  hypothesis,  but  the  writer  per- 
sonally deems  it  by  no  means  convincing. 

It  is  summed  up  concisely  and  clearly  in 
Professor  Hyslop's  book  "Science  and  a 
Future  Life."  To  begin  with,  Professor  Hyslop 
raises  some  general  objections  against  falling 
back  on  telepathy  as  a  means  of  explaining 
phenomena  of  the  Piper  type.  It  is  improper, 
he  asserts,  to  apply  it  as  an  explanatory 
hypothesis,  because  its  validity  is  not  uni- 
versally accepted  by  scientists,  and  because 
even  those  who  regard  telepathy  as  proved 
have  no  knowledge  of  its  laws  and  conditions. 

200 


Spiritism  vs.  Telepathy  201 

"The  scientific  world  generally,"  he  says, 
"has  not  accepted  it  with  any  assurance  as 
yet,  and  even  where  it  is  accepted  there  is 
no  knowledge  whatever  of  its  laws  and  con- 
ditions. The  scientific  man  will  insist  that 
these  laws  and  conditions  must  be  definitely 
ascertained  before  applying  the  hypothesis 
upon  any  large  scale."  Obviously,  if  this 
objection  were  sound,  it  would  bar  out  the 
spiritistic  as  well  as  the  telepathic  hypothesis 
as  a  means  of  explaining  psychical  phenomena. 
For  certainly,  the  "scientific  world  generally" 
does  not  accept  spirit  action  as  proved,  and 
"even  where  it  is  accepted"  there  is,  to  put  it 
mildly,  far  less  knowledge  of  the  laws  and 
conditions  of  spirit  action  than  of  the  laws 
and  conditions  of  telepathy.  As  a  'matter  of 
fact,  some  sort  of  a  hypothesis  is  necessary 
to  arrive  at  an  understanding  of  the  Piper 
and  kindred  phenomena;  just  as  some  sort 
of  a  hypothesis  is  always  necessary  to  appre- 
hend the  truth  with  regard  to  any  facts 
whatsoever  that  have  not  been  definitely  cata- 
logued, as  it  were.  And  the  hypotheses  of 
fraud,  guessing,  and  chance  coincidence  hav- 
ing been  proved  inadequate  to  explain  all 
the  facts  of  the  Piper  case,  there  would  seem 


Appendix  V 

to  be  left,  as  Professor  Hyslop  himself  stoutly 
maintains,  only  the  alternative  hypotheses  of 
telepathy  or  spirit  action.  "The  man  who 
does  not  admit  telepathy,  at  least  has  no  way 
of  evading  the  spiritistic  hypothesis." 

But,  he  proceeds,  conceding  that  telepathy 
has  been  proved,  it  is  inadequate  to  explain 
many  of  the  Piper  phenomena,  because  "so 
far  as  it  is  scientifically  supported"  it  repre- 
sents only  "what  the  person  communicating 
is  thinking  about  at  the  time  the  thought  is 
received  by  another."  That  is  to  say,  Pro- 
fessor Hyslop  would  limit  telepathic  action 
to  present,  active  mental  states;  albeit  he 
guardedly  admits  that  there  are  facts  which 
"suggest"  its  extension  to  include  subcon- 
scious mental  states.  Here  the  writer  would 
directly  take  issue  with  Professor  Hyslop;  for, 
as  has  been  stated  on  an  earlier  page,  it  seems 
to  him  that  if  the  labors  of  Myers,  Sidgwick, 
Gurney,  and  Professor  Hyslop  himself,  prove 
anything  with  regard  to  telepathy,  they  prove 
that  it  is  a  faculty  not  of  the  waking  con- 
sciousness but  of  the  subconsciousness,  and 
that  its  operation  is  far  from  being  limited  to 
"  present,  active  mental  states."  Among  much 
else  that  points  unmistakably  in  this  direc- 


Spiritism  vs.  Telepathy  203 

tion,  it  is  sufficient  to  cite  the  many  instances 
of  "deferred  percipience"  on  record  in  the 
archives  of  the  Society  for  Psychical  Research, 
cases  like  those  of  the  Rev.  Clarence  Godfrey 
and  like  some  of  the  achievements  of  Miss 
Angus  as  reported  by  Andrew  Lang. 

Admitting,  however,  for  the  sake  of  argu- 
ment, that  this  broader  view  of  telepathy  is 
justified  by  the  facts,  Professor  Hyslop  further 
contends  that  it  is  still  insufficient  to  explain 
the  Piper  phenomena,  unless  the  advocate 
of  the  telepathic  hypothesis  is  prepared  to 
assert  that  telepathy  has  an  omniscient  quality. 
"No  telepathy,"  he  declares,  "which  does 
not  extend  in  some  way  to  all  living  minds 
and  memories,  can  even  approach  an  explana- 
tion of  such  cases  [as  that  of  Mrs.  Piper]. 
So  far  as  I  know  such  a  telepathy  may  be 
possible,  but  there  is  no  adequate  scientific 
evidence  for  it.  I  do  not  know  even  one  iota 
of  evidence  for  it  that  can  be  scientifically 
accepted.  Moreover,  it  represents  a  process 
far  more  incredible  than  spirits,  and  no  in- 
telligent man  will  resort  to  the  belief  in  it  in 
any  haste.  Only  a  superstitious  prejudice 
against  the  possibility  of  spirits  will  induce  a 
man  to  betray  such  credulity  as  the  acceptance 


204  Appendix  V 

of  such  a  universal  telepathy.  A  man  that 
can  believe  it  in  the  present  state  of  human 
knowledge  can  believe  anything,  and  ought  to 
be  tolerant  of  those  who  have  a  lurking  sus- 
picion that  there  might  be  such  a  thing  as  a 
discarnate  spirit." 

Now,  this  argument  from  omniscience  has 
long  been  a  favorite  weapon  with  opponents 
of  the  telepathic  hypothesis.  But  it  rests 
altogether  on  an  assumption  which  the  advo- 
cate of  telepathy  does  not  regard  as  justifiable. 
It  is  the  assumption  that  omniscience  is  a 
necessary  factor  in  the  case,  if  telepathy  is 
to  be  invoked  to  explain  such  seemingly 
supernormal  manifestations  as  are  vouch- 
safed through  the  mediumship  of  Mrs.  Piper. 
Let  us  look  into  the  matter  more  closely, 
taking  for  our  point  of  approach  some  of 
Professor  Hyslop's  own  experiences  with  the 
celebrated  New  England  medium. 

"In  one  question,"  Professor  Hyslop  reports, 
in  his  "Science  and  a  Future  Life,"  "the 
'communicator,'  purporting  to  be  my  father, 
asked  *  Where  is  George?'  and  said,  *I  often 
think  of  him,  but  I  do  not  worry  any  more 
about  him,'  and  in  a  moment  came,  as  if 
struck  by  a  sudden  recollection,  'Do  you 


Spiritism  vs.   Telepathy  205 

remember  Tom,  and  what  has  he  done  with 
him?  I  mean  the  horse.'  My  father  had 
worried  about  this  brother,  George,  in  con- 
nection with  business  matters,  and  we  had 
an  excitable  horse  by  the  name  of  Tom  that 
father  would  not  sell  because  of  this  tempera- 
ment, and  hence  pensioned  him,  so  to  speak, 
on  the  farm,  and  when  the  horse  died  my 
brother  George  buried  him.  This  last  fact  I 
did  not  know. 

"At  one  sitting  I  asked  about  Robert 
Cooper,  a  living  cousin  of  mine,  the  object 
being  to  test  some  false  statements  made 
about  another  Cooper  referred  to  by  myself 
at  an  earlier  experiment.  The  answer  came 
that  he  intended  to  mention  him,  and  the 
demand,  'Tell  me  about  the  mortgage.'  This 
cousin  at  the  time  of  my  father's  death  had 
a  heavy  mortgage  on  his  farm  and  my  father 
knew  nothing  about  it.  But  my  cousin, 
Robert  McClellan,  helped  Mr.  Cooper  out  of 
his  difficulty,  and  a  year  later  died,  and  was 
one  of  the  'communicators'  at  this  series  of 
sittings. 

"I  also  asked  about  a  Harper  Crawford, 
who  was  an  old  neighbor  of  father's,  and  the 
reply  was  a  statement  that  he  had  frequently 


206  Appendix  V 

tried  to  mention  him,  and  the  question  whether 
'they  were  doing  anything  about  the  church.' 
I  asked  what  church  was  referred  to,  and  the 
reply  was  that  'they  have  put  an  organ  in  it.' 
I  asked  if  he  meant  a  certain  church,  knowing 
that  this  Harper  Crawford  was  a  member  of 
it,  and  the  reply  in  italics  was, '  Yes,  I  do.' 

"I  made  inquiries  in  the  West  and  found 
that  an  organ  had  been  put  in  this  church  and 
that  Harper  Crawford,  being  opposed  to 
instrumental  music  in  religious  worship,  had 
left  the  church  on  account  of  this  act.  I  did 
not  know  this  latter  fact,  and  do  not  recall 
any  knowledge  that  the  organ  had  been  put 
in  the  church." 

For  our  purpose,  these  four  paragraphs 
illustrate  sufficiently  well  the  characteristics  of 
Mrs.  Piper's  mediumship.  They  show  that, 
while  entranced,  it  is  her  custom  —  or,  more 
strictly,  the  custom  of  her  "controls"  -to 
cite  as  proof  of  the  personal  identity  of  the 
alleged  communicator  facts  of  which  her  sitter 
has  no  conscious  personal  knowledge  as  well  as 
facts  of  which  he  is  consciously  aware.  In 
view  of  this,  and  bearing  in  mind  that  this 
has  been  his  experience  in  not  simply  one  or 
two,  but  in  many  seances  with  Mrs.  Piper, 


Spiritism  vs.  Telepathy  207 

and  has  also  been  the  experience  of  many 
other  sitters,  Professor  Hyslop  feels  justified 
in  claiming  that  if  telepathy  be  the  explana- 
tion, then  telepathy  must  be  able  to  have 
knowledge  of  the  contents  of  all  living  minds. 
He  is  indeed  justified  in  adding  that  there  is 
"no  adequate  scientific  evidence"  for  such 
telepathy.  But  the  fact  of  the  matter  is  that 
there  is  no  need  to  postulate  such  a  quality 
of  omniscience  in  order  to  explain  the  Piper 
case  on  a  telepathic  basis.  The  relationship 
is  merely  between  the  medium  and  her  sitter, 
not  between  the  medium  and  "all  living 
minds."  All  that  it  is  necessary  to  assume  is 
that  in  some  way,  telepathically  or  otherwise, 
the  facts  which  the  medium  adduces  have 
become  lodged  in  her  sitter's  subconscious- 
ness,  where  the  medium  gets  at  them  telepath- 
ically. The  ease  and  correctness  with  which 
she  gets  at  them  will,  of  course,  vary  accord- 
ing as  the  conditions  for  the  exercise  of  her 
telepathic  powers  are  favorable  or  otherwise. 
"^Yhat  are  favorable,  and  what  unfavorable, 
conditions  is  not  as  yet  known,  or  even  con- 
jectured, with  any  definiteness;  but,  judging 
from  Mrs.  Piper's  career,  it  seems  certain  that 
at  least  one  favoring  condition  is  the  sys- 


208  Appendix  V 

tematic  cultivation  of  the  telepathic  faculty. 
The  reports  of  those  who  have  investigated  her 
show  that  the  quality  of  her  mediumship  is 
to-day  far  more  impressive  than  it  was  only 
a  few  years  ago,  and  it  then  showed  a  marked 
improvement  over  the  mediumship  of  the 
early,  the  "Phinuit,"  regime. 

To  come  back,  however,  to  Professor  Hys- 
lop's  criticism  of  the  telepathic  hypothesis. 
Following  the  argument  from  omniscience, 
he  ventures  the  startling  suggestion  that  if 
telepathy  be  a  fact  it  may  itself  be  due  to 
spirit  action,  and  that,  quite  possibly,  there 
may  be  telepathy  between  the  living  and  the 
dead  as  well  as  between  the  living  and  the 
living.  In  other  words,  that  telepathy  may 
be  the  very  process  by  which  discarnate  spirits 
communicate  with  spirits  still  in  the  flesh. 
Thus  he  would  make  telepathy  subserve, 
instead  of  harass,  spiritism.  But  this  is  not 
really  an  objection  to  the  telepathic  hypothesis, 
save  so  far  as  it  would  invest  it  with  a  super- 
natural significance  and  thus  damage  its 
credibility  as  a  fact  in  nature.  Before  assum- 
ing that  telepathy  is  either  operated  by  spirit 
agency,  or  is  the  process  by  which  discarnate 
spirits  communicate  with  their  living  friends, 


Spiritism  vs.  Telepathy  209 

it  is  obviously  necessary  to  prove  that  there 
are  discarnate  spirits.  Accordingly  Professor 
Hyslop,  as  a  critic  of  the  telepathic  hypothesis, 
is  on  sounder  ground  when  he  turns  from  this 
last  general  consideration  to  sundry  specific 
objections  against  believing  that  telepathy 
between  living  minds  is  an  adequate  explana- 
tion of  the  phenomena  in  question. 

Certain  of  these  specific  objections  may  con- 
veniently be  considered  together.  One  turns  on 
the  circumstance  that  the  "communicators" 
in  the  Piper  seances  show  a  happy  knack  in 
selecting  such  facts  as  are  best  calculated  to 
prove  personal  identity.  If  this  be  due  to 
telepathy  alone,  exclaims  Professor  Hyslop, 
then  telepathy  "has  to  possess  the  same 
selectiveness,  and  in  fact,  a  far  larger  selective- 
ness  in  securing  the  facts  than  any  selectiveness 
supposed  of  discarnate  spirits.  What  is  notice- 
able in  the  facts  presented  is  their  definite 
relevancy  to  the  proof  of  the  personal  iden- 
tity of  the  deceased.  Whether  the  deceased 
continue  to  exist  or  not,  there  can  be  no  doubt 
as  to  who  is  meant  by  the  facts,  and  if  telepathy 
acquires  them  it  certainly  has  an  amazing 
power  to  select  the  right  ones." 

Next,  Professor  Hyslop  lays  emphasis  on 


210  Appendix  V 

the  fact  that  the  statements  made  by  the 
"communicators"  are  frequently  incorrect. 
This,  he  feels,  would  imply  a  singular  limita- 
tion of  the  telepathic  faculty.  But  "the 
assumption  simultaneously  of  limited  and 
unlimited  powers  is  not  to  be  made  hastily. 
We  would  expect  such  limitations  of  dis- 
carnate  spirits,  but  hardly  of  a  telepathy  which 
is  apparently  omniscient  and  unlimited  in  its 
powers."  Also,  he  calls  attention  to  the  fact 
that  during  a  seance  there  frequently  are 
changes  of  "communicators,"  changes  which 
he  thinks  are  only  what  is  to  be  expected  on 
the  spiritistic  hypothesis,  but  which  are  quite 
incompatible  with  the  telepathic.  Another 
objection,  akin  to  this,  arises  from  the  varying 
ability  of  the  different  "communicators"  to 
give  proof  of  personal  identity.  Some  send 
good  evidential  messages,  others  can  do  so 
only  imperfectly.  "This  simulation  of  what 
we  should  most  naturally  expect  of  spirits 
ought  not  to  characterize  telepathy." 

To  these  four  objections  Professor  Hyslop 
adds  a  fifth  of  similar  character,  one  which 
he  evidently  considers  the  most  deadly  shaft 
in  his  critical  quiver.  And,  indeed,  not  a  few 
regard  it  as  an  insuperable  obstacle  to  the 


Spiritism  vs.  Telepathy 

telepathic  hypothesis.  Its  basis  is  the  trivial- 
ity of  the  facts  communicated  through  the 
medium.  "I  must  insist,"  says  Professor 
Hyslop,  in  a  statement  which  presents  the 
argument  as  clearly  as  could  be  desired,  "that 
the  triviality  of  the  facts  is  absolutely  incom- 
patible with  the  assumption  of  the  enormous 
powers  of  access  to  living  memories  which  the 
advocate  of  telepathy  makes  and  must  make. 
If  the  medium  can  reach  out  into  the  whole 
world  of  living  consciousness  and  memory  and 
select  from  this  infinite  mass  of  experiences  just 
the  right  ones  to  represent  the  personality  of  the 
deceased,  it  ought  to  get  with  ease  all  the  impor- 
tant and  elevated  features  of  these  person- 
alities, and  not  limit  its  access  to  the  trivial. 
Personal  characteristics  ought  to  be  produced 
in  their  perfection,  and  the  moral,  religious  or 
irreligious,  political,  literary,  philosophical 
characteristics  of  any  one  ought  to  be  pro- 
ducible at  will,  instead  of  this  distorted  and 
confused  mass  of  trivial  incidents  which  we 
find." 

As  Professor  Hyslop  frankly  admits,  this 
argument  from  triviality  may  be  utilized  to 
attack  the  spiritistic  no  less  than  the  telepathic 
hypothesis.  But  he  cleverly  wards  it  off  from 


Appendix  V 

the  spiritistic  hypothesis  by  alleging  that 
trivial  facts  are  given  because  it  is  precisely 
by  trivial  facts  that  personal  identity  may  best 
be  established.  "If  any  one  will  stop  long 
enough  to  think  and  to  ask  what  incidents  he 
would  choose  to  prove  his  own  identity  over 
a  telephone  or  telegraph  wire  he  will  readily 
discover  that  his  spontaneous  choice  would 
be  the  most  trivial  incidents  possible."  And 
"we  must  not  forget  that  the  ostensible  char- 
acter of  the  experiments  is  the  proof  of  per- 
sonal identity.  The  'Imperator'  group  of 
trance  personalities,  claiming  to  be  spirits, 
manage  their  side  of  the  work  with  definite 
reference  to  this  proof  of  personal  identity, 
and  exhibit  the  same  understanding  of  the 
problem  that  we  insist  upon.  We  cannot 
interest  ourselves  in  any  side  issues  of  intelli- 
gence and  spirit  life  until  we  have  proved  the 
personal  identity  of  deceased  persons,  and,  as 
nothing  but  trivial  incidents  in  sufficient  quan- 
tity will  prove  this,  we  must  recognize  that 
the  data  professing  to  be  spiritistic  in  their 
origin,  represent  the  most  rational  and  scien- 
tific conception  of  the  problem." 

In    this    last    quotation,    unfortunately   for 
Professor  Hyslop  and  for  those  who  agree  with 


Spiritism  vs.  Telepathy  213 

his  view  of  the  Piper  case,  lurks  the  clue  to 
the  solution  of  the  difficulties  he  has  just  raised. 
The  alleged  discarnate  spirits,  he  says,  recog- 
nize the  necessity  of  proving  their  identity, 
and  hence  supply  the  sort  of  facts  commonly 
utilized  by  living  persons  as  proof  of  identity. 
Exactly.  And  they  would  do  precisely  the 
same  thing  on  the  supposition  that  they  were 
not  discarnate  spirits  at  all  but,  as  the  tele- 
pathist  believes  the  evidence  goes  to  show, 
were  simply  secondary  personalities  that  had 
taken  form  and  character  in  Mrs.  Piper's 
organism,  just  as  secondary  personalities  take 
form  and  character  in  the  organism  of  a  per- 
son who  is  hypnotized.  In  the  last  analysis, 
there  is  no  difference  between  the  trance  state 
into  which  Mrs.  Piper  goes  during  a  seance, 
and  the  trance  state  of  any  hypnotic  subject. 
The  distinction  simply  is  that  she  seems  to  be 
constitutionally  so  nervously  unstable  that 
she  falls  spontaneously  into  the  hypnotic  con- 
dition. Now  a  hypnotized  person,  as  was 
pointed  out  on  a  previous  page,  will  enact 
with  seemingly  preternatural  fidelity  any  role 
suggested  to  him  by  the  hypnotist.  By  so 
much  the  more  should  Mrs.  Piper,  with  her 
exceptional  autohypnotic  gift,  be  able  to  re- 


214  Appendix  V 

spond  to  suggestion  and  in  her  varying  secon- 
dary personalities  fill  roles  suggested  to  her, 
however  unconsciously  or  subconsciously,  by 
those  who  have  so  long  been  experimenting 
with  her.  Remember  F.  W.  H.  Myers's 
criticism  of  the  hypnotized  patients  of  the 
Salpetriere:  "One  feels  that  the  Salpetriere 
has,  in  a  sense,  been  smothered  in  its  own 
abundance.  The  richest  collection  of  hyster- 
ics which  the  world  has  ever  seen,  it  has 
also  (one  fears)  become  a  kind  of  unconscious 
school  of  these  unconscious  prophets  —  a 
milieu  where  the  new  arrival  learns  insensibly 
from  the  very  atmosphere  of  experiment 
around  her  to  adopt  her  own  reflexes  or  re- 
sponses to  the  subtly  divined  expectations  of 
the  operator." 

The  case  seems  to  be  identical  with  respect 
to  Mrs.  Piper.  When  Professor  James  dis- 
covered her,  nearly  a  quarter  of  a  century  ago, 
she  was  simply  one  of  numerous  mediums 
operating  in  and  about  the  city  of  Boston. 
There  were  features  in  her  mediumship,  how- 
ever, which  appeared  to  him  to  merit  in- 
vestigation; and  accordingly  the  Society  for 
Psychical  Research,  through  Dr.  Hodgson, 
took  her  in  hand.  The  results,  at  first,  were 


Spiritism  vs.  Telepathy  215 

comparatively  meager  and  often  disappointing. 
It  was  noticed  that  her  "control,"  the  so- 
called  "Dr.  Phinuit,"  was  given  to  asking 
leading  questions  and  to  making  glaringly  false 
statements.  With  the  arrival  of  "George 
Pelham"  there  was  a  marked  improvement 
in  the  mediumship,  and  a  greater  improve- 
ment from  the  day  the  "Imperator"  group  of 
"controls"  took  a  hand  in  affairs.  All  this 
time  Mrs.  Piper  had  been  the  subject  of 
scientific  investigation,  had  been  in  the  com- 
pany of  zealous  experimenters.  Is  it  not  pos- 
sible, nay,  is  it  not  probable,  that  like  the  new 
arrivals  at  the  Salpetriere  she  "learned  insen- 
sibly from  the  very  atmosphere  of  experiment 
around  her,  to  adopt  her  responses  to  the 
subtly  divined  expectations  of  the  operator?" 
In  her  case,  the  operators  felt  that  the  great 
thing  to  be  established  was  proof  of  personal 
identity,  and  that  it  was  therefore  necessary 
for  alleged  communicating  discarnate  spirits 
to  cite  trivial  incidents  connected  with  their 
earthly  career.  In  response,  the  secondary 
personality  which  had  assumed  the  character 
of  George  Pelham,  Professor  Hyslop's  father, 
or  whoever  it  might  be,  would  flash  at  the 
operators  trivial  facts  extracted  telepathically 


216  Appendix  V 

from  the  depths  of  their  own  minds.  There 
would  thus  be  the  very  selectiveness  which 
Professor  Hyslop  maintains  is  incredible  on 
the  telepathic  hypothesis;  and  there  would 
also  be  the  changes  in  "communicators" 
which  he  similarly  deems  destructive  of  an 
explanation  on  the  basis  of  telepathy  between 
living  minds.  It  might  be,  too,  that  expecta- 
tion on  the  part  of  the  operators  is  the  explana- 
tion of  the  "mistakes  and  confusion"  which 
Professor  Hyslop  insists  are  only  what  is  to 
be  expected  on  the  spiritistic  hypothesis.  If 
Mrs.  Piper's  secondary  personalities  are  posing 
as  discarnate  spirits,  and  have  had  all  these 
years  to  learn  what  is  and  what  is  not  expected 
of  them  as  spirits,  surely  they  should  be  able 
to  fill  the  bill.  The  chances  are,  however,  that, 
as  was  suggested  a  moment  ago,  the  mistakes 
and  confusions  are  more  likely  due  to  the,  as 
yet  unascertained,  limitations  under  which 
telepathy  operates. 

This  view  of  the  case  finds  strong  corrobora- 
tion  in  the  actions  of  the  "  controls"  of  mediums 
who  have  not  been  subjected  to  the  experi- 
mental environment  with  which  Mrs.  Piper 
is  familiar.  If  you  go  to  a  seance  conducted 
by  a  trance  medium  who  is  at  large,  so  to 


Spiritism  vs.   Telepathy  217 

speak,  you  will  witness  phenomena  conspicu- 
ously different  from  those  reported  by  Dr. 
Hodgson  and  Professor  Hyslop.  There  is  no 
desperate  endeavor  to  prove  personal  identity, 
no  harping  on  petty  incidents  in  the  life-time 
of  the  alleged  communicating  spirit.  Instead 
of  statements  like  "Do  you  remember  Tom, 
and  what  has  he  done  with  him  ?  I  mean  the 
horse,"  or  "Tell  me  about  the  mortgage," 
or  "They  have  put  an  organ  in  the  church," 
the  sitters  are  given  an  abundance  of  comfort- 
ing and  inspiring  sentiments,  such  as  "Do  not 
mourn  for  me,  I  am  happier  here,"  "It  is  all 
sunshine  and  brightness,  I  never  dreamed  that 
the  future  would  be  as  glorious  as  this,"  "I 
am  always  near  you,  and  your  interests  are 
very  dear  to  me."  Unlike  the  scientifically 
educated  secondary  personalities  of  Mrs.  Piper, 
the  "controls"  of  these  mediums  at  large  do 
not  properly  appreciate  the  supreme  impor- 
tance of  proving  their  identity.  They  are  con- 
fronted not  by  scientific  investigators  but  by 
anxious  men  and  women,  mourning  their  be- 
loved and  longing  to  get  into  touch  with  the 
spirit  world  to  which  they  hope  and  believe 
that  their  beloved  have  gone.  In  accordance 
with  the  laws  of  suggestion,  what  they  expect 


218  Appendix  V 

they  receive;  together,  not  infrequently,  with 
just  enough  in  the  way  of  personal  references 
to  disabuse  them  of  any  lingering  idea  that 
they  may  after  all  not  be  hearing  from  the 
dead. 

On  this  view  of  the  case,  again,  disappears 
Professor  Hyslop's  final  objection  to  the  tele- 
pathic hypothesis.  Since  the  phenomena  under 
discussion  point  so  unmistakably  to  the  sur- 
vival of  human  personality  after  bodily  death, 
he  affirms  that  "we  cannot  well  escape  belief 
in  spirits  unless  we  suppose  that  subconscious 
actions  are  rather  fiendish  in  their  simulation 
of  spirits  after  acquiring  information  that  so 
evidently  points  to  the  persons  represented. 
The  psychological  complications  involved  in  a 
telepathic  hypothesis  that  completely  simulates 
spirits,  must  make  any  man  pause  when  try- 
ing to  estimate  the  nature  of  unconscious 
mental  action.  It  would  have  to  be  regarded 
as  supremely  devilish  in  its  character."  But 
what  about  the  fiendishness  and  the  devilish- 
ness  if  the  complete  and,  to  Professor  Hyslop, 
convincing  simulation  of  discarnate  spirits  is 
ultimately  ascribable  to  suggestion  on  the 
part  of  those  with  whom  the  medium  comes 
into  contact?  There  is  no  occasion  to  hurl 


Spiritism  vs.  Telepathy  219 

epithets  at  "unconscious  mental  action."  All 
that  is  necessary  is  to  recognize  that,  like 
"conscious  mental  action,"  it  can  bring  about 
baneful  or  beneficial  results  —  can  develop  to 
a  phenomenal  degree,  on  the  one  hand  medi- 
ums like  Mrs.  Piper  who  invest  their  telepathic 
performances  with  a  spiritistic  setting,  and  on 
the  other  hand  mediums  like  Miss  Angus  who 
exhibit  powers  on  a  par  with  those  of  Mrs. 
Piper,  but  as  Mr.  Lang  tersely  puts  it,  "with 
no  aid  from  the  dead.'1 


APPENDIX  VI 
HINTS  FOR  FURTHER  READING 

FOR  the  general  subject  of  personality  no 
book  can  be  studied  to  better  advantage 
than  F.  W.  H.  Myers's  "  Human  Person- 
ality and  Its  Survival  of  Bodily  Death," 
mention  of  which  has  so  frequently  been 
made  in  the  preceding  pages.  As  originally 
published  (1903)  it  consists  of  two  large  vol- 
umes, but  an  abridged  edition  (1907)  con- 
taining the  essentials  is  now  available  in  a 
single  volume.  Whenever  possible,  however, 
the  original  edition  should  be  consulted.  It 
treats  in  a  graphic  and  luminous  way  all 
phases  of  the  abnormal  and  seemingly  super- 
normal in  human  life  —  disintegrations  of 
personality,  the  nature  of  genius,  the  phe- 
nomena of  sleep  and  hypnotism,  sensory  and 
motor  automatisms,  hallucinations,  possession, 
etc.  —  and  affords  at  once  a  panoramic  and 
acutely  analytical  view  of  its  important  sub- 
ject. At  the  same  time  it  needs  to  be  read 

220 


Hints  for  Further  Reading  221 

with  great  critical  caution,  for  Myers  was  a 
mystic  and  poet  fully  as  much  as  a  man  of 
science,  and  his  treatment  throughout  is 
colored  by  a  distinct  leaning  towards  the 
supernatural  implications  so  easily  connected 
with  the  more  "mysterious"  phenomena  he 
discusses.  Especially  is  this  evident  in  the 
concluding  chapters,  where  he  marshals  the 
proof  supporting  the  theory  that  spirit  com- 
munication is  an  established  fact,  and  that 
the  question  of  survival  is  therefore  definitely 
settled.  Still,  as  has  already  been  said,  what- 
ever opinion  be  formed  of  the  author's  con- 
clusions there  can  be  no  doubt  that  he  has 
made  a  most  —  one  is  tempted  to  write,  the 
most  —  searching  examination.  An  extremely 
valuable  feature  of  his  work  is  the  glossary  in 
which  he  defines,  in  language  intelligible  to 
a  tyro,  the  technical  terms  that  he  finds  it 
necessary  to  use. 

Like  all  writers  on  the  subject  of  personality 
Myers  himself  is  dependent,  in  large  measure, 
on  the  material  to  be  found  in  the  "Journal" 
and  the  "Proceedings"  of  the  Society  for 
Psychical  Research.  These  constitute  a  mine 
of  information  in  which,  just  as  in  a  veritable 
mine,  not  all  the  ore  is  of  equal  quality.  It 


222  Appendix  VI 

has  been  the  hope  of  the  present  writer,  how- 
ever, to  assist  the  student  in  acquiring  the 
correct  view  point  for  scrutinizing  the  contents 
of  this  vast  repository,  which  holds,  it  must  be 
said,  far  more  data  relating  to  the  super- 
normal than  to  the  abnormal.  Especially 
deserving  of  careful  consideration  are  the 
volumes  of  the  "Proceedings"  containing  the 
reports  on  the  telepathic  experiments  con- 
ducted under  the  society's  auspices,  the  re- 
port on  the  census  of  hallucinations,  the 
reports  on  the  production  of  hallucinatory 
images  by  crystal-gazing  and  other  means, 
the  Hodgson  and  Hyslop  reports  on  the  Piper 
case,  and  the  various  articles  on  hypnotic 
phenomena.  It  might  also  be  mentioned  that 
the  student  will  find,  scattered  through  dif- 
ferent volumes  of  the  "Proceedings,"  a  clear 
presentation  of  the  ideas  which  Myers  after- 
wards elaborated  in  his  great  book.  Those 
who  cannot  obtain  access  to  the  "Proceed- 
ings" may  gain  at  least  a  partial  view  of  their 
contents  from  the  writings  of  James  H. 
Hyslop,  notably  his  "Science  and  a  Future 
Life"  (1905),  "Enigmas  of  Psychical  Re- 
search" (1906),  and  "The  Borderland  of 
Psychical  Research"  (1906).  These  consist 


Hints  for  Further  Reading          223 

in  large  part  of  quotations  from  the  "Pro- 
ceedings," form  as  it  were  a  psychical  trilogy, 
and  conduct  the  reader  in  an  interesting  way 
through  the  tortuous  paths  of  the  survival 
maze.  They  are  written  in  a  distinctly  popu- 
lar vein,  which  is  of  course  greatly  in  their 
favor  from  the  standpoint  of  the  general 
reader;  but,  as  in  the  case  of  Myers's  work, 
it  is  all  too  evident  that  their  author  inclines 
to  the  spiritistic  hypothesis.  None  the  less 
they  convey  an  intelligent  idea  of  the  progress 
already  achieved  by  psychical  research,  and 
the  problems  still  challenging  solution;  and 
are  valuable  as  dissipating  erroneous  ideas 
respecting  the  nature  of  the  self. 

It  would,  in  fact,  be  well  to  give  them 
a  thoughtful  reading  before  attempting  the 
perusal  of  "Human  Personality,"  the  "Pro- 
ceedings," and  the  "Phantasms  of  the  Living" 
—  a  work  which,  produced  in  1886  by  Ed- 
mund Gurney  and  several  collaborators,  is 
still  of  prime  importance.  In  the  way  of 
introductory  literature  attention  should  also 
be  called  to  the  writings  of  the  late  Thomson 
Jay  Hudson,  who  approaches  the  subject 
from  the  standpoint  of  the  avowed  telepathist, 
and  to  whose  criticisms  of  the  spiritistic 


224  Appendix  VI 

hypothesis  the  present  writer  feels  himself 
greatly  indebted.  In  especial  the  student  is 
advised  to  consult  "The  Law  of  Psychic 
Phenomena"  (1893),  "A  Scientific  Demon- 
stration of  the  Future  Life"  (1895),  and  "The 
Evolution  of  the  Soul"  (1904).  The  last  is  a 
posthumous  volume  of  essays  giving  in  com- 
pact form  the  evidence  in  support  of  the 
telepathic  as  against  the  spiritistic  hypothesis, 
and  also  dealing  more  generally  with  the  chief 
problem  of  personality,  which  is  also  the  con- 
cern of  "The  Law  of  Psychic  Phenomena" 
and  "A  Scientific  Demonstration  of  the  Future 
Life."  Dr.  Hudson's  other  works  include 
an  original  little  treatise  on  "The  Law  of 
Mental  Medicine,"  which,  besides  discussing 
more  specifically  the  therapeutic  possibilities 
latent  in  man  himself,  gives  in  a  clear  way  its 
author's  views  on  the  nature  of  man. 

In  quite  another  category,  but  still  neces- 
sary to  the  student  who  would  look  at  all  sides 
of  a  question,  are  Joseph  Jastrow's  two  books, 
"Fact  and  Fable  in  Psychology"  (1901)  and 
"The  Subconscious"  (1906).  So  far  from 
accepting  the  conclusions  set  forth  by  the 
writers  named  above,  and  differing  on  essen- 
tial points  from  the  psychopathologists  wrhose 


Hints  for  Further  Reading 

contributions  have  yet  to  be  indicated,  Pro- 
fessor Jastrow  may  be  accepted  as  a  repre- 
sentative champion  of  the  orthodox  concept 
of  the  self — admitting,  in  the  light  of  the  dis- 
coveries made  by  Liebeault,  Charcot,  Janet, 
Sidis,  et  a/.,  that  the  subconscious  life  is  far 
richer  and  more  varied  than  has  hitherto  been 
supposed,  but  denying  that  this  involves  any 
radical  readjustment  of  belief  respecting  the 
nature  of  personality.  More  particularly  in 
"The  Subconscious"  does  he  seek  to  explain 
along  conservative  lines  the  weird  eccentrici- 
ties of  personality  under  the  influence  of 
sudden  shocks,  hysteria,  hypnotism,  etc.  Un- 
fortunately, Professor  Jastrow  adopts  such 
an  indirect  and  technical  diction  that  it  is 
by  no  means  easy  for  even  the  advanced 
student  of  psychology  to  follow  him;  and 
though  the  beginner  ought  to  make  an  effort 
to  grasp  the  views  presented,  he  will  likely 
turn  with  relief  to  the  earlier  and  more  read- 
able "  Fact  and  Fable  in  Psychology,"  or 
to  another,  but  less  imposing  book,  which 
may  be  recommended  for  introductory  read- 
ing. This  is  Frank  Sargent  Hoffman's  "Psy- 
chology and  Common  Life"  (1903),  in  which 
the  results  of  psychical  research  are  simi- 


226  Appendix  VI 

larly  reviewed  from  the  orthodox  stand-point, 
but  in  a  far  easier  vein  than  is  the  case  with 
"The  Subconscious."  Among  the  psycholo- 
gists, however,  no  one  has  so  brilliantly  illu- 
minated the  study  of  the  self  as  William 
James,  whose  conclusions  and  the  grounds 
on  which  they  rest  are  fully  and  lucidly  set 
down  in  his  "Principles  of  Psychology"  (1890), 
a  work  so  well  known  that  comment  here 
would  be  superfluous. 

Turning  to  treatises  by  savants  who  have 
attacked  the  problems  of  personality  chiefly 
from  the  standpoint  of  abnormal  mental  life, 
a  twofold  difficulty  immediately  confronts 
the  student.  There  are  very  few  books  deal- 
ing with  the  subject  as  a  whole,  and  most  of 
the  existing  literature,  being  addressed  pri- 
marily to  psychologists,  psychiatrists,  and 
physicians,  is  written  in  technical  and  difficult 
terms.  A  clear  and  ample  statement  of  the 
views  of  the  psychopathologists,  written  on 
the  scale  and  with  the  ease  of  "Human  Per- 
sonality and  Its  Survival  of  Bodily  Death," 
is  in  fact  greatly  needed.  However,  there  are 
certain  works  which  may  fairly  be  regarded 
as  introductory  in  character,  and  acquaintance 
with  which  will  facilitate  correct  compre- 


Hints  for  Further  Reading          227 

hension  of  the  more  elaborate  and  special 
studies.  One  of  these  is  Boris  Sidis's  "The 
Psychology  of  Suggestion"  (1898),  aptly  de- 
scribed in  its  sub-title  as  "a  research  into  the 
subconscious  nature  of  man  and  society." 
This  contains  the  first  published  account 
(barring  articles  in  the  Archives  o]  Neurology 
and  Psychopatlwlogy}  of  Dr.  Sidis's  investi- 
gations into  human  personality,  and  of  his 
law  of  dissociation;  and  though  not  wholly 
adapted  to  the  lay  reader,  it  still  is  not  unduly 
technical.  Another  introductory  study,  more 
readable  but  covering  the  ground  less  fully, 
is  Morton  Prince's  "The  Dissociation  of  a 
Personality"  (1906).  Concerned  principally 
with  the  strange  story  of  Miss  Christine  L. 
Beauchamp,  Dr.  Prince  nevertheless  affords 
a  vivid  glimpse  of  the  psychopathological  pic- 
ture of  personality,  doing  this  preparatory 
to  a  larger  work  which  he  purposes  issuing 
under  the  title  of  "Problems  in  Abnormal 
Psychology,"  and  which  may  possibly  meet 
the  need  indicated  above.  Alfred  Binet's 
"Alterations  of  Personality"  (1896),  as  trans- 
lated by  Helen  Green  Baldwin  with  notes 
by  J.  Mark  Baldwin,  is  also  to  be  recom- 
mended to  beginners.  Dealing  mainly  with 


228  Appendix  VI 

the  dissociations  of  hysterical  patients,  as 
observed  in  the  Salpetriere,  Dr.  Binet  at  the 
same  time  gives  a  succinct  review  of  the 
evidence  tending  to  prove  the  instability  and 
divisibility  of  the  ego,  so  far  as  such  evidence 
had  been  obtained  up  to  the  time  his  book 
was  written.  Incidentally,  also,  he  makes  an 
interesting  application  of  the  results  of  scien- 
tific research  to  explain,  on  a  naturalistic 
basis,  the  phenomena  of  spiritistic  medium- 
ship. 

The  student  should  next  master  the  con- 
tents of  standard  books  on  hypnotism  —  that 
wonderful  instrument  by  which  the  phenomena 
of  subconsciousness  are  laid  bare.  Some 
would  recommend  this  as  the  initial  step  in 
the  textual  study  of  the  psychopathological 
analysis  of  personality;  but  in  the  writer's 
judgment  it  may  better  be  taken  after  an  out- 
line view  of  the  field  of  observation  has  been 
secured.  J.  Milne  Bram well's  "Hypnotism" 
(1903)  is  a  recent  treatise  by  an  authoritative 
writer,  and  embraces  a  capital  survey  of  the 
history,  theory,  and  practical  application  of 
this  branch  of  the  science  of  healing.  With 
Dr.  Bramwell's  book  may  advantageously  be 
read  such  other  works  as  Albert  Moll's 


Hints  for  Further  Reading          229 

"Hypnotism"  (1890),  Otto  Wetterstrand's 
"Hypnotism  and  Its  Application  to  Practical 
Medicine"  (1897),  Charles  Lloyd  Tuckey's 
"Psycho-Therapeutics"  (1889),  H.  Bernheim's 
"Suggestion  and  Its  Applications  to  Thera- 
peutics" (1890),  translation  by  C.  A.  Herter; 
and,  if  the  reader  be  acquainted  with  the 
French  language,  A.  A.  Liebeault's  "Thera- 
peutique  Suggestive"  (1891),  the  last  word 
on  the  subject  by  the  founder  of  the  Nancy 
school,  and  E.  Berillon's  "Histoire  de  1'Hyp- 
notisme  Experimentale "  (1902). 

All  of  these  books  are  by  followers  of  Lie*- 
beault,  and  are  valuable  as  giving  a  graphic 
presentation  not  merely  of  the  nature  and 
mechanism  of  hypnotism  but  of  its  practical 
therapeutic  utility.  For  the  views  of  the 
Paris  school  the  student  should  consult,  if 
possible,  J.  M.  Charcot's  "Oeuvres  Com- 
pletes" (1886-90),  published  in  nine  volumes; 
or,  if  for  any  reason  this  be  out  of  the  question, 
Binet's  already  mentioned  "Alterations  of 
Personality,"  and  the  more  special  studies  by 
Pierre  Janet,  to  be  cited  shortly.  Charcot 
himself  contributed  to  The  Forum  (1890)  a 
brief  account  in  English  of  his  theories, 
methods,  and  results.  If  the  reader  desires 


230  Appendix  VI 

to  make  a  still  more  exhaustive  study  of 
hypnotism  from  the  historical  point  of  view, 
he  can  readily  trace  its  evolution  by  ex- 
amining, in  the  order  named,  the  following 
books:  Franz  Anton  Mesmer's  "Memoire 
sur  la  Decouverte  du  Magnetisme"  (1779), 
the  Marquis  de  Puysegur's  "Du  Magnetisme 
Animal"  (1807),  and  "Researches  Physio- 
logiques  sur  1'Homme"  (1811),  Alexandre 
Bertrand's  "Du  Magnetisme  Animal  en 
France"  (1826),  J.  C.  Colquhoun's  "Isis 
Revelata:  An  Inquiry  into  the  Origin, 
Progress,  and  Present  State  of  Animal  Mag- 
netism" (1833),  John  Elliotson's  "Surgical 
Operations  in  the  Mesmeric  Trance"  (1843), 
James  Braid's  "  Neurypnology "  (1843)  and 
"Observations  on  Trance"  (1850),  James 
Esdaile's  "Mesmerism  in  India"  (1846)  and 
"Natural  and  Mesmeric  Clairvoyance"  (1852), 
and  A.  A.  Liebeault's  "Du  Sommeil  et  des 
Etats  Analogues"  (1866),  containing  the  first 
statement  of  the  views  of  the  great  psycho- 
pathologist  of  Nancy.  The  subsequent  de- 
velopment of  hypnotism  is  fully  shown  in  the 
works  already  enumerated. 

With  the  ground  thus  cleared,  the  student 
may  with   some   measure   of   confidence   ap- 


Hints  for  Further  Reading          231 

proach  the  difficult  special  studies  of  such 
psychopathologists  as  Janet,  Breuer,  Freud, 
and  Sidis.  Of  these  the  most  important,  in 
the  present  connection,  is  "Multiple  Personal- 
ity" (1905),  written  by  Dr.  Sidis  in  collabora- 
tion with  Dr.  Simon  P.  Goodhart.  Like  Dr. 
Prince's  "The  Dissociation  of  a  Personality," 
this  work  has  for  its  central  theme  an  account 
of  one  of  the  strangest  cases  of  personality 
disintegration  on  record;  but  Drs.  Sidis  and 
Goodhart  —  or,  to  be  exact,  Dr.  Sidis,  for 
Dr.  Goodhart's  connection  is  only  with  that 
part  of  the  book  dealing  strictly  with  the  case 
under  review  —  utilize  the  opportunity  to 
make  an  elaborate  explanation  of  the  psycho- 
pathological  concept  of  the  ego.  Beginning 
with  a  biological  analysis,  in  which  emphasis 
is  placed  on  the  neuron  theory,  the  student  is 
conducted  by  a  series  of  logical  steps  through 
practically  the  whole  range  of  psychopatho- 
logical  theory  and  practice,  the  concluding 
chapters  being  rich  in  illustrative  experiments 
and  cures  made  by  Dr.  Sidis.  Unfortunately, 
so  far  as  concerns  the  theoretical  aspects, 
"Multiple  Personality"  bears  a  close  re- 
semblance to  Professor  Jastrow's  "The  Sub- 
conscious" in  the  difficulties  it  presents  on 


232  Appendix  VI 

account  of  the  use  of  technical  language  and 
an  extremely  complicated  terminology.  And 
in  this  respect  it  is  outdone  by  Dr.  Sidis's 
" Psychopathological  Researches"  (1907),  de- 
tailing the  results  of  the  treatment  of  a  num- 
ber of  most  interesting  cases  of  dissociational 
mimicking  of  insanity,  epilepsy,  etc.  Both 
these  books,  however,  should  be  given  a  care- 
ful reading,  and  more  particularly  "Multiple 
Personality,"  which  affords  as  does  no  other 
single  volume  a  thorough  presentation  of  the 
evidence  supporting  the  psychopathological 
definition  of  personality. 

Less  technical,  though  none  too  easy  read- 
ing, and  distinctly  of  the  nature  of  special 
treatises,  are  the  writings  of  Pierre  Janet. 
Professor  Janet,  who  holds  the  chair  of  psy- 
chology at  the  College  de  France  and  is  also 
director  of  the  psychological  laboratory  in  the 
clinic  of  the  Salpetriere,  is  a  pupil  of  Charcot's, 
and  his  chief  interest  has  naturally  been  in  the 
study  of  victims  of  hysteria,  that  insidious 
dissociational  malady  of  multiform  manifesta- 
tions. There  is  probably  no  greater  authority 
on  the  subject  to-day;  and  Janet's  works, 
while  intended  chiefly  for  medical  men,  are 
of  a  lively  interest  to  the  lay  reader  because 


Hints  for  Further  Reading          233 

of  the  extent  to  which  hysteria  prevails  in  all 
countries  and  the  dangers  to  which  hysterical 
patients  are  exposed  unless  the  real  nature 
of  their  trouble  be  recognized.  Hysteria  does 
not  consist,  as  is  popularly  thought,  merely  in 
nervous  outbreaks  ranging  from  fits  of  un- 
controllable weeping  or  laughing  to  some 
form  of  insanity;  it  also  has  peculiar  physical 
characteristics,  which  not  unfrequently  de- 
ceive physicians  as  well  as  untrained  observers 
into  thinking  that  relief  and  cure  can  be  ob- 
tained only  through  the  performance  of  a 
surgical  operation.  And  even  when  this  is 
not  the  case,  hysteria  is  productive  of  phe- 
nomena that  may  lead  to  the  permanent  but 
wholly  unnecessary  incarceration  of  its  un- 
happy subject  in  some  institution.  Further, 
the  study  of  hysteria  throws  a  flood  of  light  on 
the  activities  of  subconsciousness,  and  is  thus 
important  if  only  from  the  view-point  of  gain- 
ing a  clearer  knowledge  of  personality.  Most 
of  the  standard  works  in  which  it  is  discussed 
necessitate,  however,  acquaintance  with  a 
foreign  language,  and  this  is  in  large  measure 
true  of  Janet's  treatises,  only  two  or  three 
of  which  have  been  translated  into  English. 
Luckily,  these  include  the  most  recent  and 


234  Appendix  VI 

the  most  informative,  particularly  his  "The 
Mental  State  of  Hystericals"  (1901)  and 
"The  Major  Symptoms  of  Hysteria"  (1907). 
The  former  is  an  excellent  book  with  which  to 
begin  the  study  of  the  special  literature  bear- 
ing on  the  phenomena  of  dissociation  in 
hysteria;  the  latter  contains  the  lectures  de- 
livered by  Professor  Janet  at  Harvard  Medical 
School  in  the  autumn  of  1906,  and  is  a  lumi- 
nous review  of  the  characteristic  indications 
of  the  presence  of  this  dread  disease.  In- 
cidentally, it  includes  a  succinct  survey  of  the 
progress  made  in  the  knowledge  and  treat- 
ment of  hysteria  from  the  earliest  times  to 
the  present  day.  Students  having  the  gift 
of  tongues  are  advised  to  read  also  Professor 
Janet's  "Nervoses  et  Idees  Fixes"  (1898), 
"  L'Automatisme  Psychologique "  (new  edi- 
tion 1899),  and  "Les  Obsessions  et  la 
Psychasthenie"  (1903);  and  "Studien  uber 
Hysteric"  (1895),  by  the  Austrian  specialists 
J.  Breuer  and  S.  Freud,  who  utilize  for  the 
treatment  of  dissociation  a  method  distinct 
from  hypnotism  and  not  unlike  Dr.  Sidis's 
hypnoidization.  In  this  connection  it  may 
not  be  amiss  to  mention  Paul  Dubois's  "The 
Psychic  Treatment  of  Nervous  Disorders" 


Hints  for  Further  Reading          235 

(1905),  in  which  a  method  is  described  of 
scientifically  applying  the  principle  of  sugges- 
tion without  the  intervention  of  hypnotism, 
hypnoidization,  or  any  other  indirect  means. 
It  only  remains  to  indicate  briefly  the 
books  which  may  advantageously  be  read  to 
acquire  a  fuller  understanding  of  spiritism 
and  telepathy.  For  spiritism  the  great  work, 
in  fact  the  one  work  which  it  is  absolutely 
necessary  for  the  student  to  procure,  is  Frank 
Podmore's  "Modern  Spiritualism"  (1902). 
This,  though  written  on  a  more  modest  scale, 
is  for  its  subject  fairly  comparable  with 
Myer's  "Human  Personality,"  and  is  charac- 
terized by  fulness  of  presentation,  ease  of 
style,  and  sanity  of  view-point.  Spiritism,  as 
Mr.  Podmore  sees  it,  is  the  product  of  a 
mysticism  which  traces  its  origin  to  the 
witchcraft  of  the  Middle  Ages,  and  includes 
in  its  pedigree  the  early  superstitions  attach- 
ing to  the  so-called  animal  magnetism  of  the 
days  of  Mesmer,  de  Puysegur,  and  Bertrand. 
Coming  down  to  the  question  of  spiritism 
proper,  Mr.  Podmore  gives  a  realistic  account 
of  the  first  period  of  the  movement  —  the 
period  of  Andrew  Jackson  Davis,  the  Fox 
sisters,  etc.  —  and  follows  its  development 


236  Appendix  VI 

to  recent  times,  with  a  critical  analysis  of  the 
methods  of  the  most  celebrated  physical  and 
psychical  mediums  from  Daniel  Dunglas 
Home  to  Leonora  Piper.  Should  the  reader 
be  desirous  of  investigating  the  subject  further 
he  may  read,  among  others  which  he  will  find 
cited  in  Mr.  Podmore's  pages,  the  following 
books : 

Catharine  Crowe's  "The  Night  Side  of 
Nature"  (1848)  and  "Spiritualism"  (1859), 
C.  W.  Elliott's  "Mysteries,  or  Glimpses  of 
the  Supernatural"  (1852),  E.  W.  Capron's 
"Modern  Spiritualism:  Its  Facts  and  Fa- 
naticisms" (1855),  valuable  for  a  detailed 
account  of  the  first  phases  of  the  movement; 
Robert  Hare's  "Experimental  Investigation: 
The  Spirit  Manifestations,  etc."  (1855),  giving 
the  results  of  the  first  inquiry  by  a  scientist 
into  the  truth  of  the  phenomena  of  spiritism, 
but  a  book  which  may  by  no  means  be  taken 
at  its  face  value;  Alfred  Russel  Wallace's 
"The  Scientific  Aspect  of  the  Supernatural" 
(1866),  D.  D.  Home's  "Incidents  in  My  Life" 
(First  Series,  1863,  Second  Series,  1872), 
autobiographical  fragments  which  may  be 
supplemented  by  Mrs.  Home's  "D.  D.  Home, 
His  Life  and  Mission"  (1888)  and  "The  Gift 


Hints  for  Further  Reading          237 

of  D.  D.  Home"  (1890);  R.  D.  Owen's  "The 
Debatable  Land"  (1871),  "Report  of  the 
London  Dialectical  Society"  (1871),  detailing 
the  evidence  obtained  in  an  inquiry  conducted 
for  scientific  purposes;  William  Crookes's 
"Researches  in  the  Phenomena  of  Spiritual- 
ism" (1874),  Serjeant  Cox's  "The  Mechanism 
of  Man"  (1876),  J.  W.  Truesdell's  "The 
Bottom  Facts  Concerning  the  Science  of 
Spiritualism"  (1883),  giving  the  story  of  a 
number  of  exposures  of  fraudulent  mediums 
by  a  shrewd  investigator;  "The  Preliminary 
Report  of  the  Seybert  Commission"  (1887), 
narrating  the  results  of  the  labors  of  a  scien- 
tific committee  appointed  by  the  University  of 
Pennsylvania  for  the  purpose  of  investigating 
the  claims  of  spiritism;  R.  B.  Davenport's 
"The  Death  Blow  to  Spiritualism:  Being  the 
True  Story  of  the  Fox  Sisters"  (1888);  W. 
Stainton  Moses's  "Works,"  as  found  in  the 
"Memorial  Edition"  (1894)  with  a  bio- 
graphical notice  of  this  celebrated  English 
medium;  Frank  Podmore's  " Studies  in  Psy- 
chical Research"  (1897),  and  W.  E.  Robin- 
son's "Spirit  Slate  Writing  and  Kindred 
Phenomena"  (1899),  giving  the  best  account 
yet  written  of  the  various  fraudulent  devices 


238  Appendix  VI 

used  by  professional  slate-writing  mediums. 
The  reader  who  will  struggle  through  these 
works  —  some  of  which  are  uncommonly 
tedious  —  and  supplement  them  by  perusal 
of  the  "Proceedings  of  the  Society  for  Psychi- 
cal Research,"  may  rest  assured  that  he  has 
obtained  full  information  concerning  the  rise 
and  progress  and  shortcomings  of  spiritism, 
at  any  rate  so  far  as  respects  the  spiritistic 
movement  in  Anglo-Saxon  countries. 

The  literature  of  telepathy,  although  of  far 
more  recent  origin,  promises  to  become  almost 
as  voluminous  as  that  of  spiritism.  Of  capi- 
tal importance  are  the  numerous  articles  and 
reports  in  the  "Journal"  and  "Proceedings" 
of  the  Society  for  Psychical  Research,  Myers's 
"Human  Personality,"  and  the  writings  of 
Thomson  Jay  Hudson,  who  was  perhaps  the 
most  indefatigable  of  independent  investiga- 
tors. The  cooperative  production  "Phan- 
tasms of  the  Living,"  and  Frank  Podmore's 
"Studies  in  Psychical  Research"  and  "Appari- 
tions and  Thought  Transference"  (1896), 
should  also  be  carefully  examined.  For  a 
survey  of  the  historical  evolution  of  the 
telepathic  hypothesis  Mr.  Podmore's  "  Modern 
Spiritualism"  will  be  found  useful,  particu- 


Hints  for  Further  Reading          239 

larly  in  the  chapters  on  Mesmer  and  his 
disciples,  spiritism  in  France  and  Germany, 
and  the  English  mesmerists.  Dr.  R.  Osgood 
Mason's  "Telepathy  and  the  Subliminal  Self" 
(1897)  may  also  be  commended  for  informa- 
tiveness.  Professor  Jastrow's  "Fact  and  Fable 
in  Psychology  "  contains  a  compact  criticism 
of  the  telepathic  hypothesis  from  the  ultra- 
scientific  standpoint.  For  a  criticism  of  it 
from  the  spiritistic  standpoint  one  cannot 
do  better  than  consult  Professor  Hyslop's 
"  Science  and  a  Future  Life." 


INDEX. 


Alcoholism,  cured  by  hypnotism, 

72,  186-190. 
Angus,  Miss,  crystal-gazer,  154- 

155,  203,  219. 

Apparitions,  telepathic  explana- 
tion of,  31,  143-150;  cases  of, 

118-125. 

Apports,  12,  117. 
Auditions,    cases    of,     125-126; 

telepathic  explanation  of,  143, 

151. 
Automatic  speaking  and  writing, 

13,  66-68,  107,  127-134. 
Azam,  Dr.,  and  case  of  Felida  X., 

62,  63,  64. 

B.,  case  of  Elsie,  70. 

B.,  case  of  Madame,  65-68. 

Babinski,  Dr.,  defends  Paris 
school  of  hypnotism,  60-61. 

Baldwin,  H.  M.,  227. 

Baldwin,  J.  M.,  227. 

Balfour,  A.,  29. 

Barrett,  W.  F.,  proposes  or- 
ganization of  a  society  for 
psychical  research,  28;  other- 
wise mentioned,  30,  31. 

Beauchamp,  C.  L.,  case  of,  85- 
89,  227. 

Beaunis,  Dr.,  57,  60. 

Bebee,  H.,  spiritistic  medium,  9. 


Berillon,  E.,  72,  229. 

Beraheim,  H.,  associates  himself 
with  Laebeault,  56;  otherwise 
mentioned,  VII,  60,  69, 84, 105, 
229. 

Bertrand,  A.,  recognizes  the  im- 
portance of  suggestion,  20; 
otherwise  mentioned,  230,  235. 

Binet,  A.,  60,  69,  227,  229. 

Blavatsky,  Madame,  case  of, 
112-115. 

Bourne,  A.,  case  of,  36-41. 

Braid,  J.,  gives  hypnotism  its 
name,  22;  his  method  of  in- 
ducing the  hypnotic  state,  59; 
otherwise  mentioned,  15,  20, 
53,  54,  230. 

Bramwell,  J.  M.,  cases  of  al- 
coholism cured  by,  188-189; 
writings  of,  228. 

Breuer,  J.,  192,  231,  234. 

Brougham,  Lord,  179. 

C.,  case  of  Mrs.,  188-189. 

Capron,  E.  W.,  236. 

Census  of  hallucinations,    177- 

185. 
Charcot,    J.    M.,    his   work   in 

hypnotism,  58-60;  writings  of, 

229;  otherwise  mentioned,  VII, 

15,  23,  84,  225,  232. 


241 


242 


Index 


Christian  Science,  definition  of, 
VI;  remarkable  growth  of,  10. 

Clairaudience,  13. 

Clairvoyance,  13,  154. 

Colquhoun,  J.  C.,  230. 

Cox,  S.,  237. 

Crawford,  Lord,  and  D.  D. 
Home,  165-171. 

Crookes,  W.,  on  requirements  in 
psychical  research,  108-109; 
investigates  D.  D.  Home,  169- 
171;  otherwise  mentioned,  29, 
172,  173,  237. 

Crowe,  C.,  236. 

Crystal-gazing,  13,  107,  154-155. 

D.  F.,  case  of,  94-98. 
Darwin,  C.,  3,  4. 
Davenport,  R.  B.,  237. 
Davey,  S.  J.,  duplicates  feats  of 

slate-writing    mediums,    109- 

112. 
Davies,  case  of  Mrs.,  125-126, 

151. 
Davis,    A.    J.,    career   of,    6-8; 

otherwise  mentioned,  13,  235. 
Dissociation,  cases  of,  35^41,  62- 

79,  94-104;  curability  of,  79, 

94,    105;    physical    disorders 

caused  by,  93;  law  of,  92-94; 

writings  on,    227,   228,   231- 

235. 
Drink  habit,  hypnotic  treatment 

of,  72,  186-190. 
Dubois,  P.,  234. 
Dunraven,    Lord,    and    D.    D. 

Home,  165-171. 


Elliotson,  J.,  pioneer  student  of 
hypnotism,  15,  20,  22,  23,  53, 
230. 

Elliott,  C.  W.,  236. 

Elongation,  12,  117,  167, 168. 

Esdaile,  J.,  uses  hypnotism  as 
anesthetic,  21;  telepathic  ex- 
periments of,  21;  otherwise 
mentioned,  15,  20,  53,  230. 

Evolutionary  theory,  early  effects 
of,  3. 

F.  G.,  apparition  seen  by,  122- 

125,  147-150. 
Fire  ordeal,  168-170. 
Fox  sisters,  8-9,  163,  235. 
Franklin,  B.,  investigates  Mes- 

mer,  19. 
Freud,  S.,  192,  195,  231,  234. 

Gieson,  I.  van,  head  of  New  York 
Pathological  Institute,  90-91. 

Godfrey,  C.,  telepathic  appari- 
tion produced  by,  140-141, 
143,  203. 

Goodhart,  S.  P.,  and  the  Hanna 
case,  101-104,  231. 

Gurney,  E.,  advances  knowledge 
of  hypnotism  and  telepathy, 
30;  writings  of,  223;  otherwise 
mentioned,  16,  23,  31,  53,  113, 
137,  145,  202. 

Hallucinations,  produced  by  hyp- 
notism, 69-70;  removed  by 
hypnotism,  76;  telepathic,  137- 
143;  census  of,  177-185;  fre- 
quency of,  179. 


Index 


243 


Hanna,  T.  C.,  case  of,  102-104. 

Hare,  R.,  236. 

Harvard  Medical  School,  Janet's 
lectures  at,  62,  234;  Sidis's 
experiments  at,  197, 

Herter,  C.  A.,  229. 

Hodgson,  R.,  and  case  of  A. 
Bourne,  37-41;  and  case  of 
Madame  Blavatsky,  114-115; 
and  case  of  Eusapia  Paladino, 
116-117;  and  case  of  Mrs. 
Piper,  128,  131-134;  converted 
to  spiritism,  133;  becomes  a 
"control"  of  Mrs.  Piper's,  134; 
criticises  telepathy,  200. 

Hoffman,  F.  S.,  225. 

Home,  D.  D.,  mediumship  of,  12, 
162-173;  otherwise  mentioned, 
127,  236. 

Home,  Mrs.  D.  D.,  236. 

Hudson,  T.  J.,  telepathic  experi- 
ments of,  138-139,  152-154; 
writings  of,  223-224,  238; 
otherwise  mentioned,  47,  156. 

Hydesville  rappings,  8-9,  163. 

Hypnoidization,  103,  191-199. 

Hypnotism,  as  practised  by  Mes- 
mer,  17-19;  Esdaile's  work  in, 
21;  Elliotson's  theories  of,  22; 
Laebeault's  work  in,  54-58; 
the  Nancy  school  of,  55;  Char- 
cot's  work  in,  58-60;  conflict- 
ing views  of  the  Nancy  and 
Paris  schools  of,  60-61;  lost 
memories  recalled  by,  68; 
some  therapeutic  uses  of,  71- 
79;  importance  of,  in  treat- 


Hypnotism  — continued 

ment  of  mental  and  nervous 
disease,  80,  85-89,  96-100;  as 
an  explanation  of  certain 
spiritistic  phenomena,  171- 
173;  as  a  cure  of  alcoholism, 
186-190;  writings  on,  228- 
230. 

Hyslop,  J.  H.,  investigates  Mrs. 
Piper,  133-134;  criticises  tele- 
pathy, 200-219;  writings  of, 
222-223;  otherwise  mentioned, 
VIII,  13,  239. 

Hysteria,  cured  by  hypnotism, 
76;  nature  of,  233. 

Insanity,  statistics  showing  in- 
crease of,  80-82;  and  psy- 
chopathology,  105. 

J.  F.,  case  of,  98-100. 

James  W.,  and  case  of  A.  Bourne, 
37,  41 ;  and  case  of  Mrs.  Piper, 
127-128,  134;  otherwise  men- 
tioned, VIII,  26,  29,  47,  90, 
226. 

Janet,  J.,  74. 

Janet,  P.,  and  case  of  Felida  X., 
62;  and  case  of  Madame  B., 
65-68;  writings  of,  232-234; 
otherwise  mentioned,  VII,  IX, 
60,  75,  84,  105,  192,  195,  225, 
229. 

Jastrow,  J.,  on  the  subliminal 
self,  50^51;  writings  of,  224- 
225,  231,  239. 

Johnson,  A.,  177. 


244 


Index 


Kirk,  telepathic  apparition  pro- 
duced by  Mr.,  141-142,  143. 
Koons,  J.,  spiritistic  medium,  11. 

Lang,    A.,    153,    154-155,    203, 

219. 

Levitation,  12,  117,  164-167. 
Liebeault,  A.  A.,  career  of,  54- 

58;  otherwise  mentioned,  VII, 

16,  23,  60,  69,  71,  84,  105,  225, 

229,  230. 

Liegeois,  Dr.,  57,  60,  69. 
Lodge,  O.,  and    case    of    Mrs. 

Piper,  129-130,  157;  otherwise 

mentioned,  29. 
London  Dialectical  Society,  165, 

167,  237. 

Mason,  R.  O.,  239. 

Massey,  C.  C.,  31. 

Memories  recalled  by  hypnotism, 
68;  recalled  by  hypnoidization, 
103. 

Mental  faculties  improved  by 
hypnotism,  72. 

Mesmer,  F.  A.,  career  of,  15-20; 
fluidic  theory  of,  17,  19;  other- 
wise mentioned,  20,  53,  230, 
235,  239. 

Mesmerism.    See  Hypnotism. 

Mitchell,  W.,  41. 

Moll,  A.,  229. 

Morselli,  H.,  and  Eusapia  Pala- 
dino,  173-176. 

Moses,  W.  S.,  spiritistic  medium, 
31,  127,  237. 

Myers,  A.  T.,  177. 


Myers,  F.  W.  H.,  characteristics 
of,  26;  his  theory  of  the  sub- 
liminal self,  42^16;  importance 
of  his  "Human  Personality," 
42,  220-221;  criticises  Paris 
school  of  hypnotism,  61,  214; 
on  case  of  Madame  B.,  65;  on 
case  of  Marceline  R.,  73-75; 
on  the  census  of  hallucina- 
tions, 182-184;  otherwise  men- 
tioned, 28,  29,  30,  31,  53,  113, 
118,  129,  137,  145,  151,  157, 
177,  202,  238. 

Nancy  school  of  hypnotism,  55, 

61,  71. 
Neuralgia,  cured  by  hypnotism, 

73. 
Neuron  theory,  92-94. 

Owen,  R.  D.,  237. 

P.,  case  of  Madame,  77. 

Paladino,  E.,  spiritistic  medium, 
112,  115-117,  163,  173-176. 

Paris  school  of  hypnotism,  60-61. 

Pathological  Institute  of  New 
York,  90-92. 

Pelham,  G.,  one  of  Mrs.  Piper's 
"controls,"  131-132,  215. 

Personality,  orthodox  view  of, 
33;  view  held  by  Myers  and 
other  psychical  researchers, 
42-46;  psychopathological 
view  of,  159-160;  cases  of  dis- 
integration of,  35^41,  62-68, 
85-89,  100-104;  divisibility  of, 


Index 


245 


Personality — continued 
proved,  61;  ultimate  unity  of, 
proved,  69;  evidence  for  sur- 
vival of,  107-135;  impossible 
to  obtain  scientifically  accept- 
able proof  of  survival,  157;  but 
valid  reasons  for  believing  in 
survival,  161-162;  writings  on, 
220-239. 

Phobies,  cured  by  hypnotism,  76- 
79. 

Piper,  L.  E.,  spiritistic  medium, 
13,  127-134,  155,  156-157, 
200-219,  236. 

Plummer,  W.  S.,  41. 

Podmore,  A.,  experiences  with 
S.  J.  Davey,  110-112. 

Podmore,  F.,  experiences  with 
S.  J.  Davey,  110-112;  writings 
of,  235,  238;  otherwise  men- 
tioned, 19,  31,  113,  141,  156, 
177. 

Prince,  M.,  advances  psycho- 
pathological  knowledge,  84 ; 
and  the  Beauchamp  case,  85- 
89;  writings  of,  227,  231 ;  other- 
wise mentioned,  VII,  IX,  92. 

Psychical  research,  beginnings  of, 
25-32;  results  of,  VIII,  29, 
158-160.  See  also  Society  for 
Psychical  Research. 

Psychopathology,  originated  in 
France,  16,  54;  cures  by 
French  practitioners,  54-79; 
cures  by  American  practition- 
ers, 84-104. 

Puysegur,  Marquis  de,  230,  235. 


Q.,  apparition  of  Mr.,  118-121, 

144-145. 
Que,  case  of,  77-79. 

R.,  case  of  Marceline,  73-75. 

R.,  case  of  Mr.,  100-101,  148, 
199. 

Reid,  T.,  on  the  nature  of  per- 
sonality, 33. 

Reynolds,  case  of  M.,  34-36. 

Rheumatism,  cured  by  hyp- 
notism, 73. 

Richet,  C.,  29,  166. 

Robinson,  W.  E.,  237. 

Salpetriere,  58,  83,  105,  214,  215, 
228,  232. 

Sciatica,  cured  by  hypnotism,  56, 
73. 

Sidgwick,  H.,  characteristics  of, 
25;  otherwise  mentioned,  28, 
29,  30,  53,  114,  137,  177, 
202. 

Sidgwick,  Mrs.  H.,  30,  114,  177. 

Sidis,  B.,  career  of,  89;  and  law 
of  dissociation,  92-94;  and 
cases  of  D.  F.,  J.  F.,  Mr.  R., 
and  T.  C.  Hanna,  91-104; 
method  of  hypnoidization,  103, 
191-199;  writings  of,  227, 
231-232;  otherwise  mentioned, 
VII,  IX,  91,  105,  148,  188, 
225. 

Slate  writing,  12,  109-112. 

Society  for  Psychical  Research, 
organized,  28;  aims  and 
methods  of,  28-29;  telepathic 


246 


Index 


Society  for  Psychical  Research  — 

continued 

experiments  by,  30-32;  reports 
favorably  on  telepathy,  81; 
attitude  towards  the  physical 
phenomena  of  spiritism,  107; 
investigates  Madame  Blavat- 
sky,  113-115;  investigates 
Eusapia  Paladino,  116-117; 
cases  of  apparitions  collected 
by,  118-125;  investigates  Mrs. 
Piper,  128-134;  importance  of 
records  of,  221-222,  238. 

Spiritism,  as  a  religious  system, 
5;  contrasted  with  spiritual- 
ism, 6;  beginnings  of,  6-15; 
the  phenomena  of,  12,  13,  107, 
117;  Crookes's  criticism  of, 
108-109;  writings  on,  235-238. 
See  also  Apparitions,  Audi- 
tions, Crystal-gazing,  Halluci- 
nations, Home,  Hypnotism, 
Myers,  Paladino,  Personality, 
Piper,  Psychical  Research,  So- 
ciety for  Psychical  Research, 
Suggestion,  and  Telepathy. 

Stack,  J.  H.,  114. 

Subliminal  self,  Myers's  theory 
of,  42-46;  combatted  by  ortho- 
dox psychologists,  48-52;  but 
vindicated  by  the  evidence 
obtained  through  psychical 
research  and  psychopathology, 
160-161.  See  also  Person- 
ality. 

Suggestion,  root  element  in  mes- 
merism, 17;  importance  of, 


Suggestion — continued 
first  emphasized  by  Bertrand, 
20;  further  developed  by  Braid, 
22-23;  as  utilized  by  Liebeault, 
54-58;  importance  in  hypno- 
tism denied  by  Charcot,  59; 
influence  on  bodily  organism 
recognized  by  Nancy  school, 
71;  a  factor  in  the  production 
of  spiritistic  phenomena,  171- 
173,  213-218. 

Swedenborg,  E.,  6,  18. 

Tamlin,  Mrs.,  spiritistic  me- 
dium, 10. 

Telepathy,  Esdaile's  experiments 
in,  21;  evidence  for,  27,  137- 
143,  152,  155  177,185;  experi- 
ments of  Society  for  Psychical 
Research,  30-32;  denied  by 
many  scientists,  47,  136;  as  an 
explanation  of  the  psychical 
phenomena  of  spiritism,  136, 
144-157;  criticised  by  Hyslop, 
200-219;  writings  on,  238- 
239. 

Theosophical  Society,  112-115. 

Thompson,  I.  C.,  and  Mrs.  Piper, 
130. 

Thought  transference.  See 
Telepathy. 

Truesdell,  J.  W.,  237. 

Tuckey,  C.  L.,  229. 

Wallace,  A.  R.,  3,  4,  236. 
Wambey,  audition  heard  by  Mr., 
125. 


Index 


247 


Wesermann,  telepathic  appa- 
rition produced  by  Heir,  142- 
143. 

\Yetterstrand,  O.,  229. 

White,  W.  A.,  IX.,  94-98. 


Wynne,    Captain,    and    D.    D. 
Home,  165. 

X.,  case  of  Felida,  62-64. 

Z.,  apparition  of  Julia,  122,  147. 


